Epress.am News from Armenia
Armenian National Congress (HAK) member, former foreign minister of Armenia Alexander Arzumanyan participated in Saturday’s meeting of the Small Council. The topic of this week’s meeting was the “Domestic Political Situation: Assessments and Prospects for Development.”
During the discussion, talk turned to Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian, who has been on a hunger strike since Mar. 15 in Yerevan’s Liberty Square. Arzumanyan said that HAK placed itself in competition and missed two opportunities for joining together: first when Hovannisian attended HAK’s Mar. 1 rally and second, when he began his hunger strike in Liberty Square.
In the HAK members’ opinion, such demonstrated political logic would be acceptable if “we’re preparing for the next elections, but is illogical in the case of [our] demanding extraordinary [i.e. snap elections].”
“If HAK’s strategy in the next elections is to win parliamentary seats, that in itself is comprehensible, but it’s necessary to talk about this honestly to the public. Some possible agreements with the ruling authorities are likewise acceptable but when they’re announced: All political processes have to be transparent. And if we’re changing the format of rallies, turning them into a nationwide forum, so we have to give a voice to the public, to people with different positions. The public has the right to direct questions to the leader and demand answers. The civil initiative discourse won’t happen if open, honest debate doesn’t develop,” he said.
Asked by meeting participants why other HAK representatives’ visits to Hovannisian weren’t viewed as HAK support, Arzumanyan said that it is HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrossian who symbolizes HAK.
Asked whether there isn’t a difference between a fast and a political hunger strike and finally which of these did Hovannisian initiate, Arzumanyan said the Heritage Party leader, educated in the US, is used to calling both of these a “fast,” as it is apparently accepted in English-speaking tradition and that the hunger strike coincided with the period of Lent (before Easter) was accidental. According to the former foreign minister, this is an actual political hunger strike and not a religious fast.
On the matter of possible future developments, Arzumanyan stressed that the geopolitical climate now is much more favorable for overturning the government than it was three years ago, since no government in the world today dares to suppress its citizens’ disobedience with force and that the example of Arab countries continues to be viewed positively, which, however, in a short period of time can transform into the contrary if developments in Egypt move in an adverse direction.
“The opposition’s ethics lies in the fact that it is free in its speech and assessment and doesn’t bear that requirement for restraint that state agencies are subject to in assessing foreign policy incidents,” he said.
The former foreign minister also emphasized that he has no reason to doubt that Ter-Petrossian continues to implement the plan of overturning the government and making radical changes and he trusts him — the issue, rather, is about creating an environment of real public engagement and transparency in approving decisions at HAK.
Text in the original Armenian by Ara Nedolyan.
About the Small Council: The Small Council is a local sociopolitical group that, through intensive discussions on a wide variety of topics, intends to create ideological, cultural, political and civil approaches to current, post-industrial society. The group currently operates as part of the opposition bloc the Armenian National Congress.