ARF-D also demands RoA President Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation

ARF-D also demands RoA President Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation

September 30, 2011

On September 29, during a press conference at the Slaq press club,
ARF-D Bureau member Vahan Hovhannesyan said that ARF-D follows its own
path to the forthcoming elections. Hovhannesyan pointed out, that when
it comes to fraud it makes no difference whether the elections are
regular or special. The party favors a total change of regime,
including Serzh Sargsyan, said Hovhannesyan and added that `the people
must comprehend the value of elections, otherwise no change will be
possible. It takes serious work to create civil conscience in a poor
country; there is no magical wand for that. The current social
economic policy doesn’t help towards the renaissance of people’s
selfconscience. We have to secure that renaissance by other means,
which we cannot yet reveal.’

The ARF-D Bureau member referred to the non-parliamentary opposition
Armenian National Congress’s (HAK) calls for Sargsyan’s resignation
and expressed his conviction that the President won’t step down and
pointed out that the HAK speaks about concessions by the authorities
in general, without specifying their content and deadline.

Hovhannesyan also commented on the speech that the Armenian President
gave during the 66th session of the UN General Assembly by saying that
two main issues come of it. First, the authorities need strong support
from within the country and have to resign from their monopolistic
policies. The living conditions are deteriorating, no matter what is
published or said. The directives mentioned in the President’s speech
can be only implemented in a fair country. Secondly, it is imperative
to withdraw our signature from the Armenia-Turkey Protocols,
underlined the ARF-D Bureau member. Hovhannesyan said he liked the
parts of the President’s speech concerning the Mountainous Karabakh
conflict, still he isn’t convinced about the effectiveness of the
speech, since speeches such as this have been delivered before.
According to Hovhannesyan these two issues suffice to understand why
the ARF-D is demanding an overall and systemic change of power.

Neither former President Kocharyan nor former Minister of Foreign
Affairs Oskanian have asked ARF-D’s support in relevance to next
year’s elections, clarified Hovhannesyan and added that as fara as the
ARF-D is concerned, everyone is free to sign up, sign out or cooperate
with the party. In this sense the ARF-D is open to everyone said
Hovhannisyan.

`We will have our own presidential candidate in the upcoming [2013]
elections. I cannot yet say who that will be. The decision will be
taken by the party, collectively’. Responding to a question about the
2012 parliamentary elections, Hovhannesyan did not exclude the
potential of an accord with the `traditional parties’, although such a
collaboration has small chance, but he cleared that the ARF-D has
always favored to participate on its own. Concerning the other
parliamentary opposition Heritage party (Zharangutyun), Hovhannesyan
said that the current cooperation between the two parties is very
good, but no decision has been made about the elections.

Hovhannesyan also talked about the possible nuanced changes in
Russia’s policy as a co-mediator in the Mountainous Karabakh conflict,
in case Putin is elected President of Russia and reminded that the war
in Georgia broke out during Medvedev’s presidency. As far as Putin’s
election’s effect on Armenia’s internal affairs, he mentioned that no
changes are expected and that Armenia should focus on electing its
President on its own, without interventions from other countries.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress