Armenian president “obstacle” to democracy – opposition leader
Turan news agency, Baku
25 Jun 04
Strasbourg, 25 June: MP Shavarsh Kocharyan, leader of the National
Democratic Party of Armenia, has commented in an interview with Turan
news agency on Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s speech at the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE].
Asked what he thought about the president’s assessments of the
domestic situation in the country, Kocharyan said that the president
was very “vague” about them. Particularly, it is wrong to present the
tension that has developed as an attempt to import a revolution. “In
fact, the situation deteriorated a result of ballot-rigging in
2003. Even if the revolution in Georgia had not taken place, something
would have happened in Armenia,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.
The Armenian opposition declared last September why it was intending
to achieve its aims and was based on the Constitutional Court’s
decision to conduct a referendum of confidence in the president within
a year. When the parliamentary majority refused to discuss the
referendum, the opposition had no choice but to appeal to the people,
Shavarsh Kocharyan said. “Therefore, the roots of the conflict are
different from those mentioned by Robert Kocharyan, simply it is of no
benefit to him to talk about the real reasons,” the MP said.
In addition, some points in the president’s speech “do not serve good
relations between Armenia and Georgia”, he said.
Asked if Armenia has fulfilled its commitments to PACE, the MP said
that they have been fulfilled “as a formality”. It means that
everything is alright on paper, but in fact, the adopted laws and
conventions are not being observed. Moreover, the authorities
continue to violate these documents. “These violations are pretty
frequent in the country and therefore, Armenia is not actually keeping
its commitments,” Shavarsh Kocharyan said.
Asked if he agrees with the opinion that the Armenian opposition has
lost, he said that there cannot be a clear answer. This is a defeat
for those who wanted to “checkmate in two moves”. But for those who
want to draw Armenia closer to European values and democracy this is
the beginning of a long way, and we might be late in achieving the
desired results. “In any case, Robert Kocharyan and his entourage are
obstacles in this way,” he said.