Lragir, Armenia
Nov 23 2006

ARA ABRAHAMYAN SENT HARUTIUN ARAKELYAN INTO FURY

The clash between the president of the World Congress of Armenians
Ara Abrahamyan and the Ramkavar Party may raise to a national level.
When the Ramkavar Party announced that the Congress makes no efforts,
and came out of this organization, the head of the Congress Ara
Abrahamyan announced to the media that the Ramkavar Party took this
step because it did not get support for 2007 they expected from Ara
Abrahamyan. The president of the World Congress of Armenians also
said some unpleasant words about the leader of the Ramkavar Party of
Armenia Harutiun Arakelyan as well. Arakel replied to Abrahamyan on
November 23 at the Friday Club. `As to the words of abuse addressed
to me and the political party, I think it is because of the difficult
childhood he had. He grew up in a basement, then he was a warehouse
porter. This affected his way of thinking. I do not want to go down
to his level,’ Harutiun Arakelyan said. Nevertheless, perhaps
reluctantly, Harutiun Arakelyan gave a hard evaluation of Ara
Abrahamyan, up to a `warehouse porter.’

`I was very angry, terribly angry. I had never been so angry before.
I will be chasing him everywhere. Let him try to implement a national
project. We will chase him like a fly with a flapper,’ says Harutiun
Arakelyan. According to him, if Ara Abrahamyan says he helped the
Ramkavar Party in some way, and now the political party has lost this
support, he is lying. Harutiun Arakelyan says Ara Abrahamyan did not
back the Ramkavar Party in the parliamentary election in 2003.
Harutiun Arakelyan states that the Armenian schools benefited from
the distribution of computers rather than the Ramkavar Party. `Why
shouldn’t we milk the dairy cow?’ says the leader of the Ramkavar
Party of Armenia, who says it was in favor of the educational system
of Armenia.

After 2003, Harutiun Arakelyan says, the administration of the
Ramkavar Party decided that a political party, especially if it is a
traditional party, should not depend on one person, `be it Ara
Abrahamyan or Harutiun Arakelyan.’ The leader of the Ramkavar Party
says Ara Abrahamyan wanted the Ramkavar Party to become member of the
organizational committee of the World Congress of Armenians. The
Ramkavar Party thought that it is good for the nation, and worked in
the organizational committee despite some circumstances. However,
later he realized that nothing serious is being done, and there are
other purposes than the problems of the nation, and decided to come
out of the Congress. However, before coming out, according to
Harutiun Arakelyan, they wrote several letters to Ara Abrahamyan
calling him to be watchful and get down to work. Harutiun Arakelyan
says the deputies of Ara Abrahamyan told them about the inefficiency
of the leadership of the World Congress of Armenians. The leader of
the Ramkavar Party declines to say the names of these people, saying
that the deputies asked him not to tell. `They telephone and ask not
to tell any names,’ says Harutiun Arakelyan.

`The dangerous thing is that the failure of such organizations, for
the first time 50 years ago, after Wold War II they came together in
New York, they failed, the idea is becoming clear that our nation is
unable to organize. This is a complex. An attempt is made, failure,
the second fails too. I think when such organizations fail, there
must be a change of generation to come up with a new style of work,
new ideas to be able to bring together the Armenians worldwide,’ says
the leader of the Ramkavar Party. He assures that presently they are
getting a lot of letters and complaints against Ara Abrahamyan.
`Didn’t they know that an illiterate person is leading such an
organization.’