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Aravot, Armenia
January 17, 2008 Thursday
ARMENIAN PARTY SAYS FUTURE PRESIDENT SHOULD ENSURE NATIONAL UNITY
by Margarit Yesayan
"A uniting person is required? 'SHOULD NOT WE RESPOND?'"
The deputy chairman of the National Unity Party and the head of
Artashes Geghamyan's election headquarters, Aleksan Karapetyan, said
yesterday [16 January] that he will not speak about Ter-Petrosyan
[the presidential candidate, former Armenian president].
"Regardless of who is elected [president], he should be a uniting
person. If he does not unite, this country, this people will not
forgive anyone, and this unification should be proved not by
opportunistic statements but by concrete steps," said the deputy
chairman of the National Unity Party [NUP] and the head of Artashes
Geghamyan's [the party's leader] election headquarters, Aleksan
Karapetyan, while not responding to the question of whom else [would
he support] if not Geghamyan?
According to Aravot's information, the landlords in Yerevan's
Davidashen district refuse to office space for rent to the election
headquarters of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan even at
exorbitant prices (as they beware of the consequences). Instead, the
leader of the National Unity Party and a presidential candidate,
Artashes Geghamyan, has opened his election headquarters in the same
district, in a quite a prominent place (the well-known "white shop").
People living in Davidashen have known for years that the "white
shop" is owned by MP Samvel Aleksanyan. And because it is just not
understandable how they refuse to rent space to one opposition
candidate and provide it in the most prominent place to another one,
Aravot daily asked the deputy chairman of the NUP and the head of
Artashes Geghamyan's elections headquarters, Aleksan Karapetyan, when
he was at the Hayely [Mirror] discussion club yesterday [16 January],
how such coincidences happen? First of all we would like to
understand- whether the National Unity Party experiences any
difficulties in terms of renting space? In response to this question
Karapetyan said that they have had headquarters for two or three
years already and did not rent new spaces. Their back-up headquarters
will be opened " in apartments of supporters, that is the conditions
are already there". Aleksan Karapetyan dismissed our information that
this "white shop" belongs to Samvel Aleksanyan. "It is not Samvel
Aleksanyan's, it belongs to a member of our party and is not in any
way related to Samvel Aleksanyan." Later Mr Karapetyan said that if
needed he can introduce the owners of this place.
Incidentally, the majority of questions that were addressed to
Aleksan Karapetyan concerned Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Journalists wanted
to understand why the candidate of the National Unity Party and
members of the party speak more about Ter-Petrosyan than about their
programmes, and why the NUP people never miss an opportunity to "hit
out at" the former president and so on. The head of Artashes
Geghamyan's election headquarters, while attentively and patiently
listening to all these questions, did not yield to "provocations" and
did not say almost any word about Ter-Petrosyan: "Journalists make
provocations and one cannot answer them. And when you do answer, they
omit the first part and leave only the last bit. Now I don't want to
talk about Levon Ter-Petrosyan and do not want to answer your
questions concerning him. I want to present what the National Unity
is taking to the presidential elections". Karapetyan said that they
did not do battle against Levon Ter-Petrosyan "from the beginning":
"The fact that Artashes Geghamyan was one of the first to meet Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, is evidence of this". And the National Unity Party
started to respond to Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the time, when "he said
that those who do not join him are enemies of the people, proteges of
the government and so on. This offended us. We are in the politics
for seven years, and he has been around for ten... I do not want to
speak about it any more. And why should we join him, let's start form
this. We do not think that he is the candidate who our people are
waiting for, who will lead the country in the direction that we want.
We stand by the programme of our candidate. And if he (Ter-Petrosyan
- M.E.) starts to traduce our leader - should not we answer? If we do
not answer, they say that we speak about Ter-Petrosyan while leaving
aside their programme." The deputy chairman of the National Unity
Party also said that their purpose is the unification of the nation,
and if people are found, "who would want to oppose this unification,
interfere and create instability in the country, so that our
century-long "friends" - the Turkish and the Azerbaijanis - get
happy, we will not stand this and we will deliver a counter-blow to
these people and we will not let our people be short-changed".
January 17, 2008 Thursday
ARMENIAN PARTY SAYS FUTURE PRESIDENT SHOULD ENSURE NATIONAL UNITY
by Margarit Yesayan
"A uniting person is required? 'SHOULD NOT WE RESPOND?'"
The deputy chairman of the National Unity Party and the head of
Artashes Geghamyan's election headquarters, Aleksan Karapetyan, said
yesterday [16 January] that he will not speak about Ter-Petrosyan
[the presidential candidate, former Armenian president].
"Regardless of who is elected [president], he should be a uniting
person. If he does not unite, this country, this people will not
forgive anyone, and this unification should be proved not by
opportunistic statements but by concrete steps," said the deputy
chairman of the National Unity Party [NUP] and the head of Artashes
Geghamyan's [the party's leader] election headquarters, Aleksan
Karapetyan, while not responding to the question of whom else [would
he support] if not Geghamyan?
According to Aravot's information, the landlords in Yerevan's
Davidashen district refuse to office space for rent to the election
headquarters of presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrosyan even at
exorbitant prices (as they beware of the consequences). Instead, the
leader of the National Unity Party and a presidential candidate,
Artashes Geghamyan, has opened his election headquarters in the same
district, in a quite a prominent place (the well-known "white shop").
People living in Davidashen have known for years that the "white
shop" is owned by MP Samvel Aleksanyan. And because it is just not
understandable how they refuse to rent space to one opposition
candidate and provide it in the most prominent place to another one,
Aravot daily asked the deputy chairman of the NUP and the head of
Artashes Geghamyan's elections headquarters, Aleksan Karapetyan, when
he was at the Hayely [Mirror] discussion club yesterday [16 January],
how such coincidences happen? First of all we would like to
understand- whether the National Unity Party experiences any
difficulties in terms of renting space? In response to this question
Karapetyan said that they have had headquarters for two or three
years already and did not rent new spaces. Their back-up headquarters
will be opened " in apartments of supporters, that is the conditions
are already there". Aleksan Karapetyan dismissed our information that
this "white shop" belongs to Samvel Aleksanyan. "It is not Samvel
Aleksanyan's, it belongs to a member of our party and is not in any
way related to Samvel Aleksanyan." Later Mr Karapetyan said that if
needed he can introduce the owners of this place.
Incidentally, the majority of questions that were addressed to
Aleksan Karapetyan concerned Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Journalists wanted
to understand why the candidate of the National Unity Party and
members of the party speak more about Ter-Petrosyan than about their
programmes, and why the NUP people never miss an opportunity to "hit
out at" the former president and so on. The head of Artashes
Geghamyan's election headquarters, while attentively and patiently
listening to all these questions, did not yield to "provocations" and
did not say almost any word about Ter-Petrosyan: "Journalists make
provocations and one cannot answer them. And when you do answer, they
omit the first part and leave only the last bit. Now I don't want to
talk about Levon Ter-Petrosyan and do not want to answer your
questions concerning him. I want to present what the National Unity
is taking to the presidential elections". Karapetyan said that they
did not do battle against Levon Ter-Petrosyan "from the beginning":
"The fact that Artashes Geghamyan was one of the first to meet Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, is evidence of this". And the National Unity Party
started to respond to Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the time, when "he said
that those who do not join him are enemies of the people, proteges of
the government and so on. This offended us. We are in the politics
for seven years, and he has been around for ten... I do not want to
speak about it any more. And why should we join him, let's start form
this. We do not think that he is the candidate who our people are
waiting for, who will lead the country in the direction that we want.
We stand by the programme of our candidate. And if he (Ter-Petrosyan
- M.E.) starts to traduce our leader - should not we answer? If we do
not answer, they say that we speak about Ter-Petrosyan while leaving
aside their programme." The deputy chairman of the National Unity
Party also said that their purpose is the unification of the nation,
and if people are found, "who would want to oppose this unification,
interfere and create instability in the country, so that our
century-long "friends" - the Turkish and the Azerbaijanis - get
happy, we will not stand this and we will deliver a counter-blow to
these people and we will not let our people be short-changed".