– What do you think about Levon Ter- Petrsyan’s announcement concerning the Prosperous Armenia party during the recent demonstration? Was it analysis or an offer for cooperation with the PA?
– The main political powers – the Republican Party of Armenia, Prosperous Armenia party and the Armenian National Congress – are preparing for participation in the parliamentary elections. The other powers do not play a significant role. The authorities may decide to give some roles to those powers, but in fact those powers do not enjoy the support of the society and do not have such roles. The situation is like those powers are supported by the incumbent and former presidents of the country. The PA has never refused the information that their party is supported by Robert Kocharyan. Even if the PA is independent, which is not really like that, the mentioned powers are the main parties that will have key roles during the elections. Those three powers have three options for participation in the elections. First, they participate in the elections separately. Second, they are participating in the elections jointly with one list. Third, the two parties are in one list, and the third party is participating with a separate list. The second option is excluded. Thus, there are two options only. The experience shows that if these parties take part in the elections separately, the RPA will use the administrative resources to break down the PA and RPA. There is such possibility. Currently the RPA is trying to get the PA on its side. The ANC’s action as not an offer but an action making the PA come to the final decision faster. And it works.
– But the PA has not made any announcement concerning participation in elections separately yet. Of course, if we don’t take into account Tsarukyan’s announcement concerning the option of the “50+1”.
– No, I think that the PA has already made a decision to take part in the elections separately. It doesn’t matter what they have announced; this is what the logic of their action shows. Of course they may still change their decision. Levon Ter- Petrsyan’s announcement worked because before that Serzh Sargsyan was telling them to take part in the elections together.
– Maybe the PA did not want to open its plans before the ANC made that announcement.
– Levon Ter- Petrsyan simply discovered everything. Before his announcement the PA did not have to make a decision. Currently the PA is playing on days and hours to prolong its time as much is it can.
– Do you believe that eventually the PA will participate in the elections as a separate power?
– Eventually the PA will either be separated from the RPA or will be lost as a political power. The goal of the ANC is to make the processes faster and become closer to that separation point.
– But the PA has not gone closer to the RPA or the ANC. Didn’t Levon Ter- Petrsyan know that the PA would not cooperate with them?
– The fact that the PA will not be with the RPA during the upcoming elections is a victory for Levon Ter- Petrsyan already.
– What will be the benefit of the ANC?
– The point is that the ANC had to understand the approach of the PA as soon as possible. If the PA makes a decision to participate in the elections separately, they will be pressed down by the RPA. Now we already feel that. Let it be like that, It can either make the PA weaker or not. I mean a fight will start between the PA and RPA. Let it start as soon as possible. It was not easy for the ANC to invite the PA for cooperation because the shortcomings and malformation the ANC is fighting against are a result of the actions of the government, and the PA is a part of that government, thus they share this responsibility too. By doing that action the ANC could show that the door of cooperation between the RPA and PA was half- open. I think this solves a problem partially. We made the PA participate in the elections in May as a separate power. I am not sure but I think that following the elections of May 6 the PA will go to the Freedom Square to join the fight against electoral violations. This is my opinion as I believe they will not have any other option. Time will show that.
– Do you think that the elections will be violated and the PA will not be satisfied with what it will receive? The RPA has made announcements assuring that these elections will be the most transparent and fair elections of the past 20 years.
– They will try to violate the elections for sure. The RPA will not cross the limit of 5%. How can they get more votes?
– They have a lot of administrative resources.
– That means violation. Those people promised in 2007 that they would double the GDP; they had the slogan ‘Forward Armenia’, etc. Now let’s see what is happening. If we calculate the budget with dollar equivalent ratio, it is less by 20% than the budget in 2007. Those people were supposed to come to fight against oligarchs. The same prime- minister and ministers became new oligarchs.
– Notwithstanding your opinion concerning the budget reduction the prime- minister has announced that the budget would be increased by 101 billion drams. For this purpose he initiated tax policy reforms.
– Where has the budget been increased? The budget income part for this year was 878 billion drams, and the approved part was 938 billion. Where is that 101 billion? The budgets of the last years are posted in the government’s site, you can read it. Hat has been increased? The inflation rate was 5,5%. If you raise the 877 billion by 5,5%, it will become 926 billion. There was also 4,2% economic growth. So if we grow this 926 billion by 4,2%, we will have 964 billion drams. Ultimately it turns out that the PM has cut down the budget by 26 billion drams. Haven’t you understood this? I have said for many times that Tigran Sargsyan is good at blowing minds. Where did the mentioned 101 billion come from? Instead of that, the ANC was promising to increase the budget by 350 billion drams.
– It seems that you were positive to Levon Ter- Petrsyan’s announcement but the people in the ANC were not satisfied with it. Some of the activists and leaders did not accept the idea of cooperation with the PA.
– Of course it is difficult. There are different opinions, but I explained the situation about those three possible options.
– But if the PA participates in the elections alone, it may be dangerous for the ANC. The PA may show that they are independent and opposition and take votes from the ANC.
– The ANC will be the first one who wants the PA have more votes. Let them do that if they can. At this point we are interested to see the PA mobilizing its endorsement within the government.
– What is the difference for the ANC if these votes go the PA or RPA? Both of them are pro- government powers. You said that the PA has a share of responsibility in the negative things in the country.
– If the PA collects votes, they will collect the votes of the RPA. They may take 2 votes from the ANC, but they will take 98 votes from the RPA. This is important.
– Do you know what processes are going on in the RPA before the elections? There are opinions concerning the proportional lists already.
– I don’t know about the list.