“A1+” today interviewed Aram Sargsyan, president of “Republic” party, concerning the upcoming presidential elections.
Mr. Sargsyan, when will “Republic” party start its activities and what is the party doing now?
We are having meeting with regional groups. Before leaving for the USA, I met with the group of activists in Eghvard and I am very satisfied with the meeting. During the meetings it was obvious that the society has expectations since our people hope that the opposition will find its candidate and the people will follow him. We will continue such meetings till December. On December I can tell you about our plans in a more detailed way.
It is already for a long time that the party is not organizing a meeting, what is the reason?
Unfortunately you are right. Every time we wanted to organize a meeting with our public something went wrong. Now it is the right time for doing it, we will surely think about it during our sessions. What cancers the meetings within the party, I can say that every Monday and Thursday we invite a session and all the party members come and participate since we are a powerful party and we will still say our word in the political reality of Armenia.
What about Smbat Ayvazyan, does he participate in the sessions? Since as we know he has announced he doesn’t agree with your ideas and wants to be separate.
Smbat Ayvazyan doesn’t participate in the sessions but what cancers about the second part of your question I can assure that he hasn’t said such thing, that he doesn’t agree with my ideas, he just wants to be involved in social activities and I respect his decision.
Will all the questions be raised in the meeting? Including the question of your nomination?
Certainly, all the questions will find their answers.
Would you or members of your party participate in the meeting which will soon be organized by ANC?
I don’t want to comment on the actions of other political parties, moreover, I didn’t even know about their meeting. As I already mentioned we are a strong political party and we are busy with our works. Until our meeting I won’t participate in any other meetings.
As you know today it is prestigious to say that this political party is supported either by Russia or East. After your visite to the U.S., could you say that they support you?
Comparing with Russia, East always supports people but not a single person. Life has showed it.
Did they support our nation back in 2003 and 2008?
If you carefully look the archives you will see who has really supported us and what has U.S State Department done for Armenia. I don’t agree with people who think that U.S. “must come” and make changes. No, we must decide what we are doing, this is our life, our country and we are the only persons to think about our future. I respect the decision which was made by U.S.
In recent times there are a lot of politicians who were prisoned. Sargsyan talked about the anti-corruption, Oskanian’s case, what do you think about all this, are they done for just political motivations, or really our country tries to end the corruption?
I’m sure that a usual person, who is not involved in politics, can understand that this is all just a show. How can they fight against corruption? How can they do it if they reached authority through corruption? They have paid for their votes and now they are talking about anti-corruption. It is just ridiculous. All I want is to have a fair election. Only if we have a fair government we can fight against corruption.
Do you see any tension in Sargsyan-Kocharyan conflict or is it just a game?
I wish Kocharyan will be nominated in the elections. I want him to see whether people respect him or not. I want him to be sure that if there would be fair elections in Armenia he would be the last in the list, and Sargsyan will come right after him, but if there would be fair elections.
Translated from Armenian by Artavazd Gevorgyan
