Who wants to cheat – Khachatur Kokobelyan or Raffi Hovhannisyan?

Heritage party chairman Raffi Hovhannisyan in a press-conference commented on the general prosecutor’s petition to the parliament to cancel MP Vartan Oskanyan’s personal immunity and said that it was politically motivated and “should be rejected”.

He announced that the Heritage was against the petitioning and would not participate in the voting. “It is not because we don’t think that Oskanyan should not give answers for this case or the way he has passed through. Our position has nothing to do with him and I believe my successor will give a moral answer for bringing the option of Meghri to agenda, adopting Madrid principles, his opinions about March 1 and numerous disrespectful attitudes topeople. But it has nothing to do with today’s petition. Everyone, including all presidents, ministers and parliamentarians should be deprived of their personal immunity or no one should be an exception. If it is about the rule of law, it cannot be selective,” said Hovhannisyan. We really appreciate Hovhannisyan’s opinion about selective enforcement of law and inequality, but there were contradictions between other opinions spoken by him too.

In answer to question whether certain political forces are trying to build an image of an opposition candidate for Vartan Oskanyan he said, “Mr. Oskanyan is a very good and experienced diplomat; Armenia must be proud to have such a professional. However, he strayed from his official commitment; after resigning from office his announcements and opinions significantly differed. Maybe he was trying to correct the way he had passed. I cannot say anything in his name, but one thing I can say for sure is that being an experienced professional diplomat, who has not given an answer about the version of Meghri, Madrid principles and March 1, makes things different and it does not matter if he is opposition; it’s in his hands to make it.” This is where contradictions start from. It is not quite clear why Hovhannisyan criticized Oskanyan for March 1 and Meghri version of the conflict settlement. It was during Oskanyan’s office when the Meghri version of conflict settlement was brought up, according to which Karabakh was going to be replaced with Meghri. Also, being a representative of Kocharyan’s team maybe he also bears responsibility for the clampdown on March 1 and resulted deaths. Madird principles are probably the most compromising and realistic version of conflict settlement, however the teams that followed him were not able to develop that version and in fact failed the process and appeared in a deadlock. We don’t understand why Hovhannisyan called Oskanyan a professional diplomat if he has made so many failures. Is he trying to be an American courteous diplomat?

That is it so far and Raffi Hovhannisyan’s press conference ended up like a soap opera; everyone was expecting for an action but they have to wait till the next film to be shown.

He said he would answer all questions on October 13. “I will do my best either to nominate my candidacy or announce about not doing that so that people can have a president that belongs to them,” said Hovhannisyan.

Hovhannisyan continued his word and made an unexpected announcement, which in fact revealed the real relations with the Free Democrats Party. “I am surprised at the fact that the president of Free Democrats, Khachatur Kokobelyan did not drop his mandate, because we had an agreement with him that we would drop our mandate to give opportunities to younger people. After his return I will be able to answer all questions concerning that and related issues, after which I will make an announcement about my candidacy,” said Raffi Hovhannisyan.

Masis Ayvazyan, the secretary of Free Democrats party told us that he did not have information about such commitment. In answer to our question whether Raffi Hovhannisyan does not speak the truth he said, “What I mean is that I am not informed about the commitments and agreements between Raffi Hovhannisyan and Khachatur Kokobelyan,” said the secretary, meanwhile not excluding the fact that the leader of their partner political party may lie. Yesterday the spokeswoman of the Free Democrats, Angela Khachatryan told the 1in.am that there had not been any agreement about dropping mandates, thus that issue had not been discussed by the board of their party. “Even more, we have been against Raffi Hovhannisyan;s resignation as we believe that his legislative work will contribute to the work of the faction,” informed the spokesperson.

Armen Martirosyan, board member of Heritage party said concerning the alleged agreement between the Heritage and Free Democrats above, “As Mr. Hovhannisyan’s statement concerns Kokobelyan personally, I would prefer not to make any comments till the leaders of the parties come up with their opinions. As far as I know, it’s not only those two people who know about such agreements, but others as well. It is possible that not everyone from those parties know about this, but I would refer waiting till Kokobelyan’s return.” In answer to question whether Hovhannsyan’s statement may generate tension between the two parties Armen Martirosyan said, “Absolutely not; in his interview he openly said that it was about the leaders but not the parties.”

Perhaps only Kokobelyan can give answer to this question. We were informed by M.Ayvazyan that their party leader was abroad for medical treatment.