HRANT MARGARIAN ANSWERS QUESTION BY RADIO AYB-FE IN PARIS
Yerkir
03.04.2008 16:08
Yerevan (Yerkir) – Hrant Margarian answers question by Radio Ayb-Fe
in Paris.
Question: Let’s begin from the election campaign and see why there
were no programs, and if there were, why we didn’t hear them, and
what happened that we had a campaign of such quality and was the
Dashnaktsutyun able to make its words heard by the people?
Hrant Margarian: Thank you for the opportunity given to me. I am sure
all the Armenians are following the events in Armenia with concerns
and pain. I have to say that all the presidential elections were held
in tense environment in Armenia. We have a country where significant
changes have been made in the past 18 years, a transition from the
Soviet rule to free economic system was made that caused corruption,
poverty and injustice. We are overcoming those problems but we still
are far from a desirable situation and it is natural that there are
serious complaints about socio-economic conditions. There is a general
discontent about the injustice in the country.
I should say that compared to other similar countries, Armenia is in
a relatively better situation, there is an apparent progress and the
life has been improved.
I consider the tension in the presidential election natural, but
in the past, all the political forces had restrained their actions,
realizing there were limits one should not pass. We clearly realize
that in the past 18 years, our victory in Karabakh was not only due
to our liberation soldiers, the sacrifices of our army and people,
but also due to Azerbaijan being non-organized and the situation in
Azerbaijan: the unstable political situation, army deterioration. We
realize that most of our success was also due to the country’s
stability, the well-organized situation in the country, and this
understanding was the reason that we have always avoid moves that
could destabilize the country and result in turmoil.
This presidential election was different: there were no ideological
struggle, competition, it was not the programs of the candidates that
were clashing, the competition was not between the programs.