WHEN THEY MISTAKE POLITICS FOR POLITENESS
Lilit Poghosyan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Oct 3 2007

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, member of ARF bureau Vahan
Hovhannisyan responds to the questions about the meeting between
Dashnaktsutyun and Armenian Pan National Movement, which is diligently
discussed recently in the press and political circles.

"Don’t you think Dashnaktsutyun gave "indulgence" to Armenian Pan
National Movement for the political persecutions towards ARFD, by
hosting the party in the person of the ex-President Levon Ter-Petrosyan
and ex-Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan in ARFD office."

"I don’t think so. Every party or political figure, when they remit
their sins, if they do so, they do it for their activity not for the
attitude of the other people."

"From the point of view of the regulation of Artsakh conflict, how
would you evaluate the announcement of the ex-President saying that
Azerbaijan won’t make concession but the problem need swift solutions
otherwise we will lose both Armenia and Azerbaijan."

" Many people, Mass Media, political figures, political circles pretend
to be more Catholic than the Pope of Rome, they pretend to be more
"Dashnaktsutyun-oriented" than Dashnaktsutyun itself, they want to
show an example of being anti-Armenian Pan National Movement. To
whom – to Dashnaktsutyun? I can definitely say that these people
are mostly concerned about having power. And we are mostly concerned
about Armenia’s future. That is why we want to have fair elections
in Armenia.

I consider the announcement made by Levon Ter-Petrosyan regarding the
regulation of Karabakh issue to be wrong and dangerous. I think it
can toughen Azerbaijani posture in the negotiations. Because certain
Azerbaijani circles can think that there is a "crack" in our society.

During the previous years we managed to convince all the parliamentary
factions to sign a document on "how we see the regulation of Karabakh
issue" and to appear with a united attitude regarding this issue. The
most important thing here is that both the coalition factions and
the parliamentary opposition signed this document. It was a sign
for Azerbaijan that there is a united camp in our society regarding
Karabakh issue that is impossible to split.

Ter-Petrosyan said that there is a possibility to split it.

In my view this is dangerous and we will argue about this issue and
fight and we will never reach an agreement on it.

And the issue that has become a matter of concern for our political
circles in fact refers not to politics but rules of politeness. And
because in Armenia very often they mistake politics for politeness,
when you smile or behave as a civilized person they take it for a
political agreement. Time will arrange everything."

"Do you think Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s activeness have really "aroused
serious panic" in the political domain?"

"I don’t think so had the authority given a political assessment to
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s policy, in good time (something that by the way
we were insisting on) the situation in the country would have been
better. At that time we proposed to give the political assessment, to
dissolve the parliament and to hold extraordinary elections. We have
underscored many times that the coup d’etat of 1998 was not complete,
the President was changed, but the Parliament ruled by Armenian Pan
National Movement remained. Many of them later joined "Miasnutyun"
faction. Here is the result.