In response to the announcements that Aghvan Hovsepyan backs his candidate in Aparan city to keep his reputation from going down, member of the National Assembly Liova Khachatryan said: “The reputation of Aghvan Hovsepyan is good not only in Aparan, but also in all of Armenia. Have they always shaken hands with prosecutors? They have forgotten that they used to dream of saying hello to him, shaking hands with him. And why not? They do the same now too. This person is always with the people. How can they stop loving and respecting him? They don’t have to make announcements on behalf of the people”.
Interview with member of the National Assembly and citizen of Aparan Liova Khachatryan
– Arayik Hakobyan told us that citizens of Aparan that lived in Yerevan, i.e. Aghvan Hovsepyan and you wanted to replace their mayor by putting pressure and said that you had already started to give electoral bribes to people. Could you please interpret this announcement?
– If we are citizens of Aparan that live in Yerevan, Arayik is a citizen of Aparan that lives there. I don’t know what the difference between citizens of Aparan that live there and those that live in Yerevan is. Citizens of Aparan are the same people wherever they are. We haven’t given any electoral bribe to anyone. We have always helped our citizens despite elections. But we stopped to help them during the pre-election period so as not to let anyone say these kinds of things. And we will help them again after the elections. We will help our citizens not depending on whether they want this or not. The existing mayor has been in his position for six years, but it seems to me that during this period he did his best not to help anyone and not to do anything for people. People are disappointed of him. We will stop this: we will do our best to make Aparan develop. As for these kinds of announcements, they’d better stop this, because it is not good of them to speak such kind of false things about other citizens of Aparan.
– They say that Aghvan Hovsepyan wants to replace R. Petrosyan because often he doesn’t obey the decisions of Aghvan Hovsepyan. For instance, according to R. Petrosyan he didn’t obey the decision of Aghvan Hovsepyan to make campaign against candidate for Davitashen community head’s position Rouben Gevorgyan, and this is the reason that Aghvan Hovsepyan puts pressure on him. According to them this is the main reason that you want to appoint Gor Hovsepyan in his place. Don’t you agree with this either?
– It has already been three years that “Nig Aparan” develops. I don’t remember any case when a decision was made only by Aghvan Hovsepyan. There hasn’t been anything like this. We always lead discussions and then come to a conclusion and make a decision all together. As for Gor Hovsepyan please note that he has been a teacher of mathematics and has worked as many things, and now he is the head of one serious American project, gets good money, has cars and doesn’t have any problems with money in order to dream of being elected. The only reason that he is eager to be nominated is that he wants to build and develop our city. Citizens of Aparan respect him. I don’t think that there is any normal person that will agree to leave his good position only in order to be elected as the mayor of Aparan. And as the existing mayor can’t work in a duly manner, he decided to leave his job and to do that himself. I don’t know whether the existing mayor is not able to work physically or just his knowledge is not enough for that. Maybe he is not able for both, but it is clear that he hasn’t done anything for Aparan. During these six years he has done nothing in Aparan except collapsing it. That is why we want to back a person that is able to work. Why not? Is it bad? The head of this kind of poor community must be like a wolf. He must survive like a wolf does. It is the cleverest animal, because it knows that if it goes far, hunters will not find him, but anyway it must eat something in order to survive. In order to support our community development, the community head must go to different places and bring new ideas here, implement programs here. The existing mayor can’t do this; he is not such a clever person. He is a good man, he took part in the war and played a good role there, but this doesn’t mean that he is good mayor. These six years are witness that he is not able to do anything here. He will stay with us, he will work in the city administration as a member of the board, because citizens don’t have anything to say about the fact that Razmik is not able to work well.
– Citizens of Aparan say that by replacing the existing mayor Aghhvan Hovsepyan wants to solve the problem with his reputation in Aparan, because not one of his six candidates was elected in the surrounding villages.
– This is not right. A. Hovsepyan has not interfered in any elections and hasn’t backed anyone there. And in case when he wanted, I didn’t let him do that. He hasn’t done these kinds of things. And in case I wanted to advocate someone, the most important thing for me was what he had done for the community. I advocated almost all the existing community heads, because they were able to work. I told them I would work with anyone that was elected by public vote. And if we didn’t want anyone to be elected, we would do that. It is amazing to say that we were not able to do that.
– Could you please clarify? What would you do?
– We would explain to them like we did in other communities. We would explain to people and they would believe, understand; it was the same in other communities. All community heads of Aparan are with us. And Aghvan Hovsepyan has a very good reputation not only in Aparan, but also in Armenia. These announcements are just amazing and nonsense. Have they shaken hands with many prosecutors or met them in Marzes of Armenia? They have forgotten that they used to dream of shaking hands with him. This person is always with the public. How can they stop living and respecting him? They don’t have to make these kinds of announcements on behalf of the people.
– What would you say concerning that fact that the existing mayor and some other citizens of Aparan that had taken part in the war went to the cemeteries and swore at their friends’ cemeteries that they would protect the city and citizens from the citizens of Aparan that lived in Yerevan? Don’t you worry about this?
– I have seen the picture of those people when swearing. This people may seem that they have participated in the war to people that are not aware about them at all. You’d better find out how many people of them have taken part in the war. I am sure that you will not find anyone there except for only one person. Only Razmik has taken part in the war. Wartime is over. Now it is the time to make constructions and develop. The achievements of people don’t give them any right to get these kinds of positions. Now it is the time for professionals. Everyone must do his work. We don’t have any problems with them. The times when elections were held with tanks and pistols are in the past.
– Don’t you worry about the announcements that as they say five of ten citizens of Aparan have guns and if someone tries to instruct them they will use their guns? They promise to make war and struggle against those people from Yerevan if they interfere in the election procedures.
– It is amazing. The times of pistols and weapons have passed. Yes, some citizens of Aparan are afraid of those people, but we will protect them. No “worm” can threaten citizens of Aparan with guns. During the parliamentary elections they tried to do the same. They said that if I didn’t withdraw my candidacy they would kill me. It is the time for people who work already. No one is afraid of these kinds of announcements any more. On November 20 citizens of Aparan will elect their mayor, and that candidate will be elected who is able to work and develop our city. I think those people that have been judged shouldn’t make these kinds of announcements. They say that we release some prisoners and make people leave their jobs… Who are they? Can they tell us any names? We don’t need in anyone except our public to conduct our elections.