PRESIDENT, SERGE, BARGAVACH HAYASTAN AND REPUBLICAN PARTY ACCORDING TO SPEAKER
Lragir.am
30 Aug 06
On August 30 Victor Soghomonyan, the speaker of the president of
Armenia met with news reporters. It should be noted that this is
an extraordinary event, considering that the speaker gives such
news conferences once in several months. If the speaker meets with
journalists once in several months, it is pointless to speak about
the president. It is hard to remember when Robert Kocharyan last met
with the media of Armenia freely, that is not selectively, and freely
answered their questions. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration
to say that the news conferences of the president or his speaker are
a certain present for the media. It is notable that the speaker of
the president offered this present on the eve of Robert Kocharyan’s
birthday. And the media used the opportunity to get an idea of the
president’s opinion on the home political developments, at least to
the degree that the speaker’s competence allows. They tried to ask
him if it is true that in Sochi Vladimir Putin told Robert Kocharyan
that Serge Sargsyan is not preferred as the successor of the president.
"You see, I have not discussed this kind of publications with the
president for a long time now, because very often the efforts to find
relations between the foreign, home policies of different countries
with the home policies of Armenia sound absurd, and I think it is
pointless to discuss," says the speaker of Robert Kocharyan. The
speaker of the president disagrees to the word successor in general.
"At the moment I cannot say anything definite about the successor. In
other words, the word successor is not the right word to use in
this context, I think. Perhaps, it would be better to say the next
president of the Republic of Armenia. This is quite another point
of view," says Victor Soghomonyan. Besides the characterization
of Serge Sargsyan’s succession there is another characterization
for the defense minister – "misunderstanding". This is connected
with the statement of the minister he made before the extraordinary
assembly of the Repubican Party, saying that the head of state is not
against his membership to this political party and soon the president
or the speaker would express their opinion. It was perceived as an
instruction to Robert Kocharyan, especially after the statement of
the speaker of the president that Robert Kocharyan has a positive
attitude to the membership of Serge Sargsyan to the Republican Party.
Using the opportunity of the meeting with the speaker, the journalists
tried to find out how it happened that the "instruction" of the
defense minister was immediately carried out.
"There was a misunderstanding. When these publications appeared in
the media, there was a misunderstanding, because the defense minister
expressed his opinion that if the president wished to express his
attitude concerning his membership, he or his speaker would state,
which is quite natural. In other words, as far as I know, nobody else
expressed the opinion of the president. And I fulfilled my duty,
I expressed my opinion on the event, which was in the focus of the
political sphere and the Republic in general. If there is something
strange about it, please do explain it," says Victor Soghomonyan.
There is nothing strange and there is no conflict, says the speaker
of the president. He means a conflict between the president and
the defense minister. The journalists enquired about it, and Victor
Soghomonyan answered this question. The question, however, referred
not only to the president and defense minister personally but Bargavach
Hayastan Party and the Republican Party.
"As to Bargavach Hayastan Party and the Republican Party, I must say
there is no conflict either. There are and there can be controversies,
as I can see from news reports, different speeches, which I think is
natural because if there are no controversies and disagreement, then we
are not speaking of two different forces," says Victor Soghomonyan,
saying that otherwise the two political parties could join into
one. Victor Soghomonyan cannot see "anything dramatic" about the
controversies between Bargavach Hayastan and the Republican Party.
In fact, there is nothing dramatic, but there are a lot of illogical
things about it. It appeared that the speaker of the president would
answer questions concerning the president, and answering about the
controversies between Bargavach Hayastan and the Republican Party is
not his competence. Especially that formally Robert Kocharyan is not
related to any of these political parties. It would be logical if
the speaker of Robert Kocharyan declined to tell anything about the
controversy between these political parties saying that this question
concerns the parties only. However, for some reason the speaker
announced definitely that there is not a conflict and there are only
separate controversies. How does he know there is no controversy?
Maybe he really does know but formal awareness is concerned, for Victor
Soghomonyan states himself that he can express only the official
opinion of the president. Is the Bargavach-Republican relationship
the competence of Robert Kocharyan?