Armenian Writer-Publicist Says Why She Doesn’t Criticize Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan

The Armenian public is inertly following the opposition-authorities dialogue; the idea of dialogue is spun only in the political arena, said P-Art LLC Executive Director Karen Kocharyan, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today. According to him, the deepening of dialogue is not needed for either of the two parties.

“If the dialogue status quo is maintained, it will be favorable to both the authorities and the opposition. It will keep domestic political process in a stable state. But, in general, it’s been already 20 years in Armenia that there isn’t a domestic political issue that isn’t conditioned by foreign policy,” he said.

Another participant in Monday’s press conference, writer and publicist Marine Petrossian, however, said the status quo mentioned by Kocharyan would be catastrophic for the Armenian public.

“In the result of the dialogue, there isn’t going to be that which started the movement; that is, in the outcome of this dialogue, systemic change is ruled out — this issue has come off the agenda,” she said.

Petrossian also explained why she more so criticizes the Armenian National Congress and not Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

“I see Serzh Sargsyan’s [way of] thinking; he hasn’t made promises to the Armenian public for me to now say, you broke  your promise. No one believed Serzh, apart from those who helped rig the elections. The public expected something from [HAK leader] Levon Ter-Petrossian, but now doesn’t demand it,” she said.

According to Kocharyan, HAK can achieve systemic changes by forming the majority in the National Assembly, just as all normal political entities.

“The aim of every normal political force has to be being the majority in parliament. Well, how else are systemic changes made?” said Kocharyan.