A. Karapetyan: “Situation will aggravate in March”
Representatives of three political parties today met in Yerevan to discuss home political developments.
Chairwoman of the Social Hunchakian Party (SDHK) Lyudmila Sargsyan and Chairman of the New Times Party (NZhK) Aram Karapetyan think that the coalition memorandum has brought no changes in the country; rather, it paved a way for the opposition to run for Parliament.
"The Coalition parties will name a join candidate and cannot compete with each other. AS a result, the opposition will have more chances to be represented in the parliament," said Aram Karapetyan.
According to Lyudmila Sargsyan, the changes in the coalition agreement point to the existence of mistrust inside the coalition, as well as the restricted independence of the parties.
"The document shows that the authorities are preparing for early elections," said the SDHK chairwoman.
"This was an imposed agreement meant to clarify relations between the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the Republican Party (HHK). BHK Leader Gagik Tsarukyan simply became an instrument in the hands of Robert Kocharyan. Now Tsarukyan has come to terms with Serzh Sargsyan. BHK has finally lost its chance of independent political activity. However, an imposed cooperation cannot last long. Let us wait for future developments," she said.
HHK representatives Artak Zakaryan and Lernik Alexanyan believe that the coalition has clarified its position on the forthcoming parliamentary and presidential elections.
"The document was meant to prevent the tension that already existed in communities. It derived form the interests of the Republican Party, the Prosperous Armenia and the Orinats Yerkir Party," said Lernik Alexanyan.
Speaking about the anti-government protests in the Arab countries, NZhK Chairman Aram Karaptyan said they cannot leave Armenia unaffected.
"There will definitely be a public rage. The authorities should think of ways to hand over power without bloodshed," he said adding that the situation will worsen in March and it will be difficult to preserve the "status quo".
In reply to Karapetyan, HHK representative Artak Zakaryan said that the authorities are controlling the situation in the country.
"There are not unsettled issues in the country. The authorities demonstrate political willpower to address all issues," he said.
