– It seems that the events of March 1 have been outside the attention of the society and public discussions. Did the electoral processes cast a shadow on these events or will this theme gradually come into play again?
– I always speak about March 1 when I feel there is the need for that and when I have the chance to do so. I didn’t speak when I was outside Armenia. And I will speak as long as the page of the March 1 is open at least for myself and the relatives of the victims. The closing of the March 1 page would mean the full investigation of the events and the punishment of the culprits. As long as we don’t have that I have to speak about that because I consider myself one of the stakeholders, who should contribute to the full investigation. I think that in 2011 with the help of the people we reached the point when the government confessed that the investigation had gone in a wrong direction and the law-enforcement was assigned to conduct a more in-depth investigation. I have said that this has a formal character and the time proved so as well. And as a result of the so-called dialogue of the government and opposition the impression was that the opposition showed certain passiveness in this case and this made the international community consider this page closed. Moreover, as a result of the activities of one of the governmental structures two outstanding culprits of March 1 – Vardan Oskanyan and Grigor Grigoryan appeared in the NA. I would like to remind a section from the report of the fact-collecting group, which clearly shows that Grigoryan was the one that gave the order to fire “Cheryomukha 7” rifles. The cause of this order was that as a result of the order, at least three Armenian citizens were killed.
– PAP has placed recording devices in almost all precincts. After the elections, the recorded materials were not used. Couldn’t these facts be used during this process to prove the falsified elections?
– I can’t understand whether the cameras were there or not. If those were installed then where are the materials? Are they full or only segments of the voting process? If these recordings exist it will at least be possible to find out whether there was actually 1,6 million turnout at the voting. It means that the answer to one of the questionable matters would be clarified.
– Do you also think that double voting took place?
– For me it’s very difficult to admit that there are so many voters in Armenia. It is really unbelievable because the highest voter turnout that we had during the election of Vazgen Sargsyan and Karen Demirchyan was even lower than what we had during the recent elections. If we compare the two figures when there was a big enthusiasm and now when we have apathy and high rates of migration I claim that the numbers were manipulated. And I think this is a matter of further examination but if they had to initiate the headquarters then the first thing to bring up was supposed to be the materials and recording. If the results are not there it means that the headquarters were aimed at showing some imitation. And I see that as a result of joining this headquarters the ANC didn’t win and only lost. Only the PAP won. I think that the 470,000 votes of the PAP are a result of the inaccurate and wrong policy of the ANC. I think it will be possible to easily find out what happened. Or the ANC can say that they are satisfied with the 7% of votes they received.
– After the repositioning of political parties an impression is created that Kocharyan and Sargsyan conducted a policy to stay in front of each other during the election bid and compete against each other. Instead, opposition parties were fragmented and splintered.
– I think that the opposition had certain losses and these losses should be fixed soon. The opposition parties should quickly organize roundtable discussions. They should discuss how to participate in the upcoming elections. As a result of these processes two governmental parties were strengthened in Armenia – the RPA and PAP. And the impression is that the PAP reached these results after the wrong policies of the ANC. I have always viewed Kocharyan as part of the PAP. And I think that the parties that don’t show that they know all this is not because of the absence of an X-ray device or goggles but because they have clear instructions not to see this and raise concerns. As a result of that, in parliament we have two outstanding culprits of March 1 events – Vardan Oskanyan and Grigor Grigoryan. In this case, I have a question. If Kocharyan is not linked to PAP then why does Tsarukyan need these two people in parliament? I can confidently say that Tsarukyan doesn’t need them. Without them, Kocharyan would have as many votes as he would due to all his “charity” actions. He was definitely forced by Kocharyan. And Kocharyan was able to force because in fact the ANC also found it acceptable to interact with these people. And I cannot ever accept the communication of Oskanyan and the opposition in the joint headquarters as long as the March 1 events are not fully investigated. I may congratulate because now the ANC will have to counteract not only with Oskanyan but also with Grigoryan in the parliament. And here is one of the reasons of the decline of the ANC electorate. And all this has been turned into reality after an analysis. The opposition had successes when it was united. I think that in a month or two all the opposition forces will have to gather around a table and will try to find joint formulas to become united again.
– According to you why has the ANC after 4 years of struggle gain three times fewer votes than in 2008? Was the reason corruption?
– Once Aram Sargsyan gave a wonderful formulation as to why the people took money. The fact that people found an alternative in the money is that they had lost their trust. After October 27, 2003, 2008 people had moments when they stood up to struggle again. They believed that after their struggle certain things can be changed in this country. They had serious achievements, such as the formation of the ANC. They reached the point when they made the government revise the investigation of the March 1 case. But all this remained unfinished and because of that they lost their belief. I think that all the wings of government have used vote buying methods. It wouldn’t be possible to reach these results without that.
– What the incidents on the frontline resulted from? Do they have any connection with the regional visit of US State Secretary Hillary Clinton?
– There are always shots on the borderline. And the diversion actions were linked and coincided with Clinton’s visit. Of course, we responded to those properly. Political parties made statements too. But it’s even sadder for me that in light of these incidents Armenian political parties made such statements that even more exacerbated the situation. But I haven’t heard any comments from them how we can reach peace. Again the whole burden of war remained on our armed forces and the ministry of defense. But the mission of the political parties and the government was to speak about solutions or the ways of reaching peace. Oskanyan should have done a lot for the sake of peace having been a minister of foreign affairs for years. But he made a very surprising statement. He was encouraging to make the war more possible. He was saying that a relevant response should be given and it was given. But I’d like to remind all the politicians that each response is done at the expense of human lives and not always it brings stable peace as in this case.
– The Armenian authorities have been trying to resolve this conflict in a peaceful way for 20 years now but they can’t. Do you know what the way is?
– The best way of solution would be to stop the migration from Armenia and Karabakh. If the Armenian government had succeeded in developing the country economically we would have had repatriation and inhabitation of the deserted lands. The shooting on the residential areas is a very difficult issue. We should first of all have more population in the borderline communities and not only in Yerevan and industrial centers. We should develop militarized residential centers. For this we need actual democracy and invest necessary means. And we all know that we have financial means for that in Armenia. And these means are first of all run by politicians of Artsakh descent and various calibers of businessmen and statesmen. And now I think it’s the time they realize that these means should be directed for the development of Artaskh and Armenia. They should provide a decent and dignified life for Armenian citizens so that Armenia and Artsakh become not only fatherland but also a developed and protected country to make it attractive to people. This will bring peace. Furthermore, we need to isolate the foreign players from this region. The security of Caucasus should stem from the joint security system of the three key players of the region, which is of course a long-run matter but not striving for that would mean to continue back and forth shooting on the border.
– Would it be possible to isolate Russia and the U.S. which clearly have interests in this region?
– First, we should reach the point when all the conflicting parties will realize the benefit of peace. We should find our own ways of peace. Of course, both the US and Russia should play certain role in this region but they should be arbiters and not more. We should be the actual players. I want Armenia and the rest of the states of the Caucasus to realize this and serve only the interests of the state. My impression is that half of the Armenian government elite serves Russia and the other half – the U.S.
– And when did this service start?
– In my opinion it started on October 27 right after the shots. That is the reason why we need to reach the actual investigation of October 27 and March 1. Our country will start to freely breathe after these two matters are resolved and disclosed.