Levon Zurabyan: We are not going to negotiate with authorities
The three opposition forces in the Armenian parliament will not negotiate with the authorities on their 12- point demands even after the statement of Serzh Sargsyan. “We are ready to negotiate with the authorities on issues that concern a speedy handover of power, organization of snap presidential and parliamentary elections and switch to democracy,” says Levon Zurabyan, head of the Armenian National Congress (HAK) parliamentary group. He rules out the possibility of negotiations even if the authorities decide to honour [Heritage member] Ruben Hakobyan’s proposal and discuss the amendments to the Electoral Code at the National Assembly. This implies a switch to proportional representation. “There can only be public deals,” said Mr Zurabyan. Head of the Heritage faction in parliament Ruben Hakobyan insists that the trio will take the authorities’ readiness to meet the opposition’s 12-point demands seriously in case the National Assembly adopts the 10th point which foresees a shift to a 100-percent proportional election system. Mr Hakobyan says by amending the Eectoral Code, the authorities can bridge the opposition and the government. Unlike Hakobyan, BHK lawmaker Stepan Margaryan says all the 12 points are equally important. He does not understand why the opposition should negotiate with the authorities over the 12 demands: they can negotiate only when the authorities encounter difficulties in solving them. “When they [authorities] say they do not understand how to solve this or that issue, we shall give them advice.” Republican MP Vahram Baghdasaryan sees no problems here: “let us sit at a table and discuss the 12 demands,” he says. “Let them [the opposition forces] show readiness and we shall fix the date and venue of discussions.” At the same time, Mr Baghdasryan says the trio or quartet should not hope that the Republicans are ready to agree with everything the opposition says.
