TWO MAJOR FORCES IN ARMENIA’S POLITICAL ARENA – ARMEN BADALYAN

16:55 * 09.03.15

In an interview with Tert.am expert in political and election
technologies Armen Badalyan noted that two parties now remain in
Armenia’s political arena.

As regards the leadership of the Prosperous Armenia party, which
has declared itself an opposition force, he said that it was a
leader-chaired force under Gagik Tsarukyan, whereas it is not the
case after Naira Zohrabyan was elected party chairperson. This is a
time-consuming process.

“Armenia’s society is marginalized and at best 5-7 percent is somewhat
active. The rest 90 percent is not interested in this country, and
natural formation of opposition structure is impossible under the
circumstances,” Mr Badalyan said.

“There are forces in Armenia’s political arena now. The first is the
ruling Republican Party of Armenia, despite its unchanged political
ratings and number of members. Since the Prosperous Armenia party is
weaker now, the RPA, with its control and influence, has acquired a
high status, gained influence and new resources.”

As regards other forces, Mr Badalyan said that the Armenian National
Congress, though in Armenia’s political area, is rather weak as well.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) party is
active as well. Supportive of the idea of ‘Armenia from sea to sea,’
this party is losing its members.

“The Heritage party, which is an extremely weak political unit now,
could be considered a political force when it was part of the trio. To
sum up we can say that two major political forces – RPA and ANC –
are active in Armenia’s political arena.”

Asked what he thinks about the Prosperous Armenia party’s possible
role as a new opposition force, the expert said he finds that
political force to be a completely different structure from what
it used to be under its former leader, Gagik Tsarukyan. “Naturally,
all [the political parties] apart from the Republican are opposition
forces. As for the PAP, its influence under the leadership of Gagik
Tsarukyan was different from what it is under [current leader] Naira
Zohrabyan. And it’s not only due to the change of top figures. Under
Tsarukyan, the PAP was leader-chaired force, but it cannot be the case
with Zohrabyan. She her self has to shape a new image. If [the party]
manages to do so, it will have a certain degree of influence, if not,
they won’t have it. And I have to say that this is a time-consuming
process requiring huge financial means and professional resources. It
isn’t something to be done in just a couple of months or even years.

As for the opposition figures, a mechanical process is ruled out here.

If those forces have split apart or become weaker, it is possible
to mechanically create a new one. It isn’t practically difficult to
create a new force as far as the principles of political engineering
are concerned; the problem has to do with the society. The Armenian
society can be said to be marginalized; some 5%-7% at best are active
to a certain extent.

“The remaining 90%-95% no longer care for the country: very strong
is the psychology of either the potential emigrant or an outsider.

Opposition forces never emerge from a natural process in such
conditions,” Badalyan explained.