AUDIENCE WANTS TO SEE BLOOD
Naira Khachatryan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Dec 12 2007

Leader of "National Consent" Aram Harutyunyan, who has over again
been nominated for presidency, was the guest of "Urbat" club yesterday.

It turned out that A. Harutyunyan was deeply concerned about the
atmosphere in the political domain. The tendencies for struggle are
manifested even now two months before the presidential elections.

"The marathon has turned into a game without rules, because
unfortunately not all of the nominated candidates are concerned about
the protection of the statehood and the most important thing is that
they are ready to do anything to gain power."

A. Harutyunyan underscored that he perceives pre-election campaign
only on the level of program debates: "In our view the rivalry must
be between ideologies and programs, something that you can’t see at
present. Mutual abuses and qualifications are more frequent. This
can’t contribute to normal and democratic elections. Because when
the game has no rules the audience usually wants to see blood and of
course many people are ready to pay for it."

Leader of "National Consent" explained the fact of his nomination
with his desire to avert the undesirable process of the pre-election
campaign and his intention to start a civilized campaign. "Our
participation is also aimed at alleviating the confrontation. We
consider it important to show to the world that we are a civilized
nation that we can be proud of not only our past but also present
and why not future."

A party that is guided by similar high ideologies can’t endorse other
political powers: "The visiting-card of our opposition is to abuse
others. Today they accuse one another of being sold or performing
orders. They even accused Vazgen Manukyan of not backing the first
President."

The speaker believes his participation and the party’s ideology, which
is clearly expressed in the name of the party, will give a positive
trend to the pre-election campaign. "In our view it is the combination
of different programs that can lead to the country’s development. We
also believe liberal and traditional values must be synthesized."

But the leader has serious disagreements with Levon Ter-Petrosyan
regarding Karabakh issue. " I have an issue of debate with him,
beginning from 1991 and 1996 elections. This debate didn’t come to
an end with 1998 elections. Vazgen Sargsyan is next to me during
the debate, because he is also against Ter-Petrosyan’s approaches
regarding Karabakh issue. Though Aram Sargsyan is next to him, Levon
Ter-Petrosyan used to have disagreements with Vazgen Sargsyan as well.

The speaker highly appreciated the legislative and constitutional
amendments performed in the country, but meanwhile he underscored
that there are approaches unacceptable for him. He promised to detail
this topic during the pre-election campaign. "National Consent" hopes
that one of the extra-parliamentary powers will endorse them. But
the candidate didn’t give the name of this power. " We have program
generalities with this power. But I don’t want to give the name of
this party. They themselves will announce about it."

The leader of "National Consent" runs for the elections with hope and
belief, with expectations that with every new election the political
domain purifies and it is the obligation of every political figure
to show active participation in this process. "As you can see many
people who used to abuse have appeared in different places. Some
people have left politics, some have gained new jobs, but we still
continue our work."

By the way the speaker didn’t hide that it was very hard for him to
find the electoral pledge. " It was really very difficult that’s why
we reached CEC only at 5.50 p.m."