“As you may know, I’ve said that after the ANC passes into the parliament, I would drop my mandate. Now I am officially announcing that I am dropping my mandate and I am wishing success to the ANC for their parliamentary activity… In the near future we will discuss with our party activists the format of our cooperation with the ANC. The possibility of resigning from the ANC is not excluded either,” said Aram Sargsyan, who was in the third place in the ANC’s electoral list and is leading the Republic party being a part of the ANC. “This parliament has become an instrument of approving the orders of the authorities from the top president’s institute down. In case of such majority we will not have other choice than approving things like them. I think that I can tell my opinions concerning laws to the society not only in the parliament but also with the help of the media and during rallies. I believe that more than 90% of the society are opposition, but they have maximum 15-20 representatives in the parliament. I prefer being in streets with those 90% and I will do my best to be in streets with my supporters. You will see that,” he said. Aram Sargsyan’s decision and announcement since the election is the only action that differs from the policy and adaptive manner of behavior of the other pro-opposition political powers. A. Sargsyan’s action is very political despite the light announcements of other pro-opposition powers since the election. He shows that the real way of struggling is not taking the mandates thrown by the same government but refusing. It doesn’t matter if he said that before the elections because whatever he says now for refusing the mandates will be more reasonable that the other oppositionists’ decision to take the mandates. Even though Aram Sargsyan was included in the list of the ANC’s enemies after this action, what he did was a protest against the government for unprecedented violations. The ANC’s loyalists started criticizing Aram Sargsyan as soon as they would give themselves to the PA following “political analysis”. The ANC, particularly Levon Ter-Petrosyan, did not forgive Aram Sargsyan for his opinion about the ANC’s cooperation with the PA. In fact expressing an opinion different from its leader’s opinion is a bad mistake. Sargsyan will be criticized for destructing the ANC even though by dropping his mandate he showed that he was committed and loyal to the principles for which he was supporting the ANC. In fact by quitting being a part of the ANC Aram Sargsyan has a last opportunity to revive the remaining of the movement that started in 2008 by challenging his colleagues to come back to the values they adopted in 2008. What the authorities were not able to do with that movement even with the “case of 7”, now they have succeeded with 7 mandates.
