Five of the 11 forces participating in the NA elections are in favor of drastic changes in foreign policy. And in this sense, the force with the most extreme position is the “Sasna Tsrer” party. Arman Ghukasyan, the chairman of the “For Social Justice” party, announced this at the press conference, presenting the results of the party’s study, the target of which is the external component of the pre-election programs of the political forces participating in the extraordinary NA elections.

According to him, the “Sasna Tsrer” party has always advocated Armenia’s withdrawal from the CSTO and EAEU, and also stated that the Russian border guard troops and the military base should be withdrawn from Armenia. The “We” bloc is also in favor of Armenia leaving the EAEU, noting that this integration union has not given anything to our country. In the pre-election program of the newly-found “Ko” party, it is stated that the existing bilateral agreements between Armenia and Russia should be reviewed, in particular, it is about the Gyumri military base and the Russian border guard troops.

“This, in our opinion, is a non-standard and unbalanced approach, but it also has the right to exist,” said Ghukasyan, pointing out that their political force is in favor of a balanced policy in the external vector and considers that every sharp reversal of Armenia, related to both the West and Russia, is dangerous for the country and does not stem from our state interests. 

Referring to another newly found force, the “National Progress” party, Ghukasyan reminded that this party had recently announced that the EUTM is a club of dictators. This power also supports the Western model in foreign relations, deepening and developing cooperation with the EU. According to him, one more force deserves consideration. It is political scientist Levon Shirinyan’s “Christian-Democratic Revival” party, which declares that it supports “Sasna Trees” and that they are Armenian-centric.

“The question arises: how can they be Armenian-centric, but support a force that supports drastic policies and drastic measures,” he said.

The speaker emphasized that the approaches of political forces are important not only in terms of domestic but also foreign policy, and we hope that the voter will make his choice knowing full well that it is in the country’s interest to choose those forces that support a balanced foreign policy.

According to Arman Ghukasyan, there is no doubt that the “My Step” alliance led by Nikol Pashinyan will be the majority in the National Assembly, but here it is important to realize that even those forces that were in favor of drastic reverses in the field of foreign policy, when they came to power, softened those approaches, putting the state’s interest first.

“I think that this time we will witness such an approach, even if the forces are not represented in the National Assembly, they will be prudent and the abruptness will yield to the realization of the national and state interest,” he added.

The next speaker of the press, party member, political scientist Levon Rukhkyanalso noted that this campaign was unprecedented and stood out in both positive and negative aspects. On the positive side, the culture of debate has been further developed during the campaign, which will give voters a clear idea of ​​who they will vote for. Unlike the previous elections, this time the technologies played a very serious role, which made all the candidates more accessible to the public through the candidates’ live broadcasts, marches, and announcements. The third positive trend is that the public has high hopes for these elections, as the threat of falsification of their results has been minimized as much as possible.

“We cannot completely exclude the factor of voter bribery, but it is obvious that voter bribery is not widespread in these elections compared to all previous elections,” Rukhkyan said.

As for negative manifestations, according to the speaker, it is inadmissible when political forces fight for second place, and today exactly that trend is observed. He noted that the political force that came up with a specific program will get votes for that program, and when it announces that it is fighting for only second place, it reduces the importance of its ideas, sending a message to the voters that it will not be implemented. In addition, it is not acceptable when some political forces build their propaganda on criticizing the mistakes of the previous authorities, instead presenting what they have to do and say.

“Unfortunately, we cannot say that there were no such phenomena during this campaign, such as obstructing political forces in the process of carrying out their campaign, using administrative resources, etc.,” he added.