Not Sure That The Elections Will be Fair
Anahit Danielyan
09-06-2007 17:18:58 – KarabakhOpen
Interview with the NKR presidential candidate, Artsakh State University
professor Vanya Avanessyan.
– Mr. Avanessyan, why did you decide to offer your candidacy for the
post of the president?
– I decided to become president, because we have too much injustice,
the condition of the people is difficult and most of them live in
poverty. Many officials are abusing their government posts. I would
also like to note that the distribution of the pensions is performed
unfairly as well: one person receives 250 thousand drams, while the
other only 10 thousand. Such a disparity is unacceptable. I think that
the pension of the teachers, doctors, engineers, scientist should be no
less than 40-50 thousand drams. You cannot let people go hungry. I
think that it is necessary to open free eateries for the poor in
Karabakh. We must fight against corruption and bribery and bring up the
level of education.
– Do you believe that the upcoming elections will be fair and
transparent?
– I don’t believe that the elections will be fair. I don’t believe it
because of the past experience and conversations with the people.
– On which electorate do you count?
– I am relying on the will of the people. I do everything for the
people, and if they don’t need it, then let them not elect me. If they
want to remain hungry, poor, let them not elect me. I don’t have money
for campaigning. If the people understand me, they will give me their
votes, if not…
– How would you characterize the pre-election situation in Karabakh?
– Speaking about the candidates, as a rule, the names are called in the
alphabetical order. But the CEC does not follow that order. That is
already a wrong approach, the CEC promotes the candidates it prefers.
Pre-election campaigning, in principal, has already started and that is
not right.
– Mr. Avanessyan, the question of the liberated territories is also
being discussed during the negotiations. What is your position on this
question?
– The liberated territories are our security belt. We did not occupy
those lands. On the opposite, they tried to annihilate us and we were
forced to counterattack and create a security belt. Until our security
is guaranteed in international documents, we cannot give away anything.
We cannot return what we have. The Karabakhi people can think about
compromises only after the recognition of the independence. Karabakh
must participate in the negotiations and state its position. Armenia
does not have a right to determine our fate, we are an independent
country.
– And what can we give away?
– Maybe Shahumyan. 15% of our territory is currently under the control
of Azerbaijan. we can agree and leave Shahumyan to Azebaijan. We can
only return that which does not impact our security system negatively.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
