ACCORDING TO KIRO MANOYAN, IT IS NO NEWS THAT ARF AND SERZH SARGSYAN HAVE SOME CONTRADICTIONS
Noyan Tapan
Oct 20, 2008
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 20, NOYAN TAPAN. "The ARF is against returning
the liberated territories to Azerbaijan," the head of the ARF
Dashnaktsutyun’s Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) and Political Affairs Office
Kiro Manoyan stated at the October 20 press conference. In his words,
the only way of solving the Karabakh problem is that Azerbaijan should
reconcile itself to the reality of losing Artsakh for ever. "Over 70
years, Azerbaijan enjoyed Karabakh – thanks to the USSR. After the
collapse of the USSR, it naturally lost Artsakh and should accept
this fact," K. Manoyan said.
According to him, it is no news that the ARF has some contradictions
with the president Serzh Sargsyan regarding the settlement of
the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, in particular, the return of the
territories. In response to the question about the ARF’s attitude to
the statement that S. Sargsyan made at one time, saying that Agdam
is not an Armenian land, K. Manoyan noted that during a talk with
ARF members, S. Sargsyan denied making such an expression.
When answering the question about why the ARF is kept in the
coalition while it has differences with both the partner parties and
the president over the issues of Armenian-Turkish relations and the
Karabakh conflict’s settlement, K. Manoyan said: "The opportunity to
convince our partners and influence them keeps us in the coalition". He
added that when the ARF no longer has an influence on the other forces
making up the authorities, it will leave the coalition.