RAFFI HOVANNISIAN: OPPOSITION AND AUTHORITIES SHOULD START DIALOG BASED ON NEW AGREEMENTS AND WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS

Noyan Tapan

Feb 2, 2009

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 2, NOYAN TAPAN. One of the issues to discussed by
the Board of Heritage party during the February 21 sitting will be
the participation of the party’s representative as a member of the
Armenian delegation in the PACE. The founding chairman of the party,
National Assembly deputy Raffi Hovannisian, who has boycotted the
last two plenary sessions of the PACE, said this in response to NT
correspondent’s question.

He noted that personally, he considers it necessary that Heritage
continue taking an active part in the work of the PACE.

He expressed conviction that first of all Armenia should pursue its
national interests and solve its problems in line with democratic
standards, while the Council of Europe should be able to apply its
values and principles with respect to all its member states. "We
need this all-embracing state approach so that our delegates, the
representatives of our society will not face a situation when one
group – official delegates go to convince, request, beg not to apply
sanctions against Armenia, whereas another section of the society goes
to say why Armenia deserves this punishment," R. Hovannisian said. In
his opinion, on one hand, it is a manifestation of normal democracy,
on the other hand "it speaks of our national failure".

In the words of R. Hovannisian, the authorities and opposition,
the first and the third presidents of the country, the members of
the political coalition should "start an urgent national dialog,
having such issues on the agenda as the issue of mutual pardon and
the problem of Armenia’s legal-political, socioeconomic and national
prospects". He said that it is necessary to start this dialog based
on new agreements and without preconditions.

As regards the possibility of Heritage’s giving up its mandate at
the RA National Assembly, R. Hovannisian said that this issue will
be dicussed at the same sitting, but, judging from the general mood,
Heritage is likely "to remain faithful to its participatory policy".