IS ARF DASHNAKTSUTYUN READY TO "DIVORCE?"

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[06:42 pm] 19 September, 2007

If the Republicans decide to repeal the agreement on collaboration
with the coalition, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is ready. "We accept all the
three options, to recall our minister, to send ministers on holiday at
the pre-election period and finally, the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is ready
to work in the same way," ARF Dashnaktsutyun Supreme Body member Armen
Rustamyan said in response to the Republican’s astonishment at the
fact that the ARF Dashnaktsutyun will have its presidential nominee.

Rustamyan condemned the general belief that everything is
predetermined, "This is a means to distort the political sphere,
to stir up passiveness and lead to stagnation."

Armen Rustamyan also explained the party’s decision to name two
candidates. By nominating Armen Rustamyan and Vahan Hovanisyan to
the presidential election Dashnaktsutyun practiced the experience
of developed political systems. "If we are considering a party’s
commitment to democracy, the party should first display democracy
inside it. It is one of the simplest and most important expressions
of democracy," Armen Rustamyan says.

The ARF Dashnaktsutyun member gave a positive answer to the question
whether it means that Armen Rustamyan and Vahan Hovanisyan will be
competing to win over the ranks of the party. "It is going to be
an open and transparent competition. We will have meetings with our
ranks in the regions, invite supporters, present our approaches and
our points of views. The logic of Dashnaktsutyun is: no matter who
is selected, people will eventually support Dashnaktsutyun," Armen
Rustamyan says.

According to Rustamyan, the difference is that of persons. "I may
put the stresses in my way, and Vahan in his way. We share ideas,
nevertheless there is difference in style."

In reply to the question, why Serge Sargsyan does not support the
ARD Dashnaktsutyun, Rustamyan said, "I think it inadmissible that
the president and the parliament majority should present the same
political force as the mechanism of checks and balances does not work
in that case." Armen Rustamyan says being part of the coalition or
collaborating with the coalition does not mean you have no right to put
up a presidential candidate. "First, we are not against Serge Sargsyan.

We are not guided by the idea of being against someone. We are not
looking for enemies in this country. On the contrary, we want to
bring everyone together for the sake of something. They may tell
us that our visions are not for the sake of something but against
something, there are no such problems, you gave the wrong evaluation
of the problems. They’re welcome, let us have a debate, argue about
the subject, the problems instead of humiliating and defaming one
another," Armen Rustamyan says. He says the ARF Dashnaktsutyun is
ready for a political, ideological debate.

What will the ARF Dashnaktsutyun do in case Serge Sargsyan decides
to retrieve the Dro or Vahan Hovanisyan +30 case to make the party
more obedient?

"They can recall. We also have a lot to recall. Let them recall. We
have openly presented our biography, our past to people, and everyone
knows everything," Armen Rustamyan said coldly. "People can see and
understand everything."

Ideological struggle only with Levon Ter-Petrosyan Armen Rustamyan
has a normal attitude toward Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s nomination to
the presidential election. "In addition, it will be better if he is
nominated," Armen Rustamyan says.

According to him, the nomination of the former president will be
helpful to the presidential election in terms of politics and
ideology. "I know that when we were opposition, there were two
ideologies in the Armenian reality: one was nationalistic, the other
was cosmopolitan, internationalist," Armen Rustamyan says, stressing
that if Levon Ter-Petrosyan runs in the race, the race will have much
more ideology.