SITUATION CONTAINING ELEMENTS OF PUBLIC CRISIS
Kima Yeghyazaryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on July 24, 2008
Armenia

The ARFD Armenian office convened its 14th Supreme Assembly in
the town of Vanadzor from the 18th till the 20th of July. With the
purpose introducing the issues discussed during the assembly, MP
ARMEN ROUSTAMYAN, representative of the ARFD Supreme Body of Armenia,
yesterday organized a press-conference in the National Press Club.

According to the speaker, the Assembly held a thorough discussion on
the country’s current situation and made certain confirmations.

"According to our estimations, Armenia’s current situation contains
elements of a public crisis," A. Roustamyan mentioned.

One of the reasons of the country’s tense situation is that "the paces
of development in general trends are unsatisfactory. Democracy, a rule
of law country and a social state: these are the trends the activities
of which the Supreme Assembly estimated as unsatisfactory. That’s to
say, Dashnaktsutyun is required to sharply speed up the paces of the
development of Armenia, by implementing its programs and investing
its direct potentials."

At the same time, A. Roustamyan noted that the slow paces of the
country’s development are conditioned not only by internal but also
external factors. "We should bear in mind that we have a neighboring
country the relationship with which cannot, mildly speaking, be
characterized as friendly. We are all the time faced with the threat
of war. And the indexes of the development of that republic are within
the limits of 25 percent.

Naturally, this stipulates our future plans. And this is really a
serious threat to us."

The next confirmation of the Supreme Council concerned the tense
situation resulting from the post-electoral developments. Another
element of the public crisis is this, and it is possible to overcome
this situation in case the NA interim committee dealing with the
investigation of the March 1-2 developments manages to justify and
satisfy the expectations of the public.

"The committee is required to do its best to make its conclusions
acceptable to the public and arouse trust in its activities. And last
but not the least, the committee should be consistent in its efforts
towards disclosing all the events that occurred on March 1-2," the
MP underlined.

Answering the questions of the journalists, A. Roustamyan mentioned
that Dashnaktsutyun estimates the cooperation with the coalition
partners as positive, and the Supreme Council confirmed that "the
party’s decision to form part of the coalition is justified."

As regards the issue of the Armenian-Turkish relations, the attitude
of the ARFD remains unchanged. According to the representative
of Dashnaktsutyun party, 0Turkey’s preconditions for establishing
bilateral relations are unacceptable; these are ultimatums rather
than preconditions.

As to the issue of the Genocide, it mustn’t become a subject of
discussions and speculations.

And in case the Turkish President’s possible visit to Yerevan becomes
a reality, Dashnaktsutyun will profit by the occasion and raise the
intricate issues between the two countries in a "civilized manner"
(rallies, protest actions).