Epress.am News from Armenia
When you hear that two Armenian politicians are flirting with one another, you have to be happy; more so if this flirting is dignified, said Union for Self-Determination party leader Paruyr Hayrikyan and Heritage Party vice-chair Ruben Hakobyan, completing each other’s sentence at a press conference in Yerevan today.
Hakobyan considered recent developments between the opposition bloc Armenian National Congress (HAK) and the Sargsyan administration to be positive.
“I welcome any dialogue, if there’s any political entity, it is engaged in politics, then it shouldn’t exclude [the option of] any [type of] dialogue, this is an axiomatic issue. And the direction that HAK is moving in was going to take [us] to a dead-end and it’s possible that another March 1 would repeat itself. However, HAK radically changed its position,” he said.
On the other hand, Hakobyan continued, there’s great pressure on the Armenian authorities from European countries and the Sargsyan administration couldn’t not accept the hand that the opposition extended. “I clearly see the mediation of European agencies, which somewhat promises a normal flow to the process.”
Hayrikyan billed HAK and its leader Levon Ter-Petrossian as a non-radical opposition group since, according to him, they don’t have a radical program. As for the programs put forth by HAK, Hayrikyan called them “some cosmetic things.”
“I don’t forget that the first time the word ‘bandit state’ Levon Ter-Petrossian heard used against him, when he was on the same team with [Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan. But it’s good that he’s learning some things; I’m happy that he’s growing, he’s becoming competent; that time when Levon and his friends entered the arena, I understood that they’re ignorant, but if there’s growth now, I’m happy, my fellow compatriots are growing,” he said.
The Union for Self-Determination party leader was not interested in what HAK and the Sargsyan administration are doing, which he put this way: “They’ve been together once before, what did that give our nation: Levon was president and Serzh Sargsyan was the security minister.”