P.S. Retro: Vano Siradeghyan became a subject of discourse in HHSh (video)
Samvel Gevorgyan, a member of the Karabakh Committee, did not agree in the summer of 1998 that people began to hate the Karabakh Committee during the presidency of [first President] Levon Ter-Petrosyan. “We came to power because people wanted it and perhaps we need not have taken the executive branch.” However, Samvel Gevorgyan did not deny that neither the Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh) nor he was loved by Vazgen Manukyan and Davit Vardanyan, also members of the same Karabakh Committee. “When the split occurred it was caused by their desire to be the first… There was no ideological difference…,” said Mr. Gevorgyan. The HHSh had lost power several months before and no one was sure in Armenia whether the party was against or for Robert Kocharyan’s administration. Samvel Gevorgyan believed that they should become opposition. “We are a minority, our ideology is shoved back, the same ideology with which we came to power, i.e. believe in yourself.” The Kocharyan administration did not believe in themselves, moreover, they spoiled relations with Armenia’s neighbours who were trying to better relations with us. The president [Robert Kocharyan] received invitations from Turkey, Azerbaijan but he declined them all. “That is an infantile policy which at the beginning of the century and even at the turn of the 19th century led us to destruction.” Mr. Gevorgyan did not exclude that the HHSh might have secret contacts with the authorities. Moreover, he thought HHSh Leader Vano Siradeghyan, had contacts in the government. “Disputes and disagreements are not ruled out inside a structure, yet it does not mean that one person can impose his will on others…” The personality of Vano Siradeghyan became a subject of discourse inside the HHSh. Ara Sahakyan and Karapet Rubinyan, both members of the HHSh, thought that the HHSh had become ‘a one-person party.’ Sahakyan had been ousted from the party, while Rubinyan from its board. Mr. Gevorgyan agreed that they had been ill-treated. “The party leadership should have invited them and listened to their explanations. I do not accept this kind of behaviour,” he said. While the member of the Karabakh Committee agreed that Levon Ter-Petrosyan had made mistakes in domestic policy he thought Ter-Petrosyan had won in the Karabakh issue. Smavel Gevorgyan died of stroke in June 2014.
