On internal political issues, Radar Armenia talked with Ani Samsonyan, a member of the management board of the "Bright Armenia" party and former deputy of the National Assembly.
- The parliamentary opposition has announced to hold a rally on November 5. How do you assess their decision to hold a public meeting?
- To evaluate the decision to hold a public meeting, one must understand its purpose and plan. Naturally, there is no plan. Primitive and close connections of sentences regarding the salvation of the motherland are not a plan for me. As for the purpose, I'll make out three, if you don't mind. First, the parliamentary opposition is in a crisis and does not know what to do; therefore, the last resort is always the street. Secondly, the parliamentary opposition becomes active when there are relevant signals from Moscow. For example, they announced they would not return to the NA sessions. Still, Konstantin Zatulin, a deputy of the Russian State Duma, lined up the oppositionists one by one in front of the podium of the National Assembly within a few hours. Therefore, the parliamentary opposition tends to move with more foreign directions and not Armenian interests. And, of course, the main goal is to defeat the peace process. The opposition has not said the red lines that Armenia should not cross in the negotiation process. For example, now they are waiting for Moscow's public position on the corridor issue, so they can decide what to promote in Armenia. There is also a slim hope and belief that the peace agreement will fail, and after that, they will tell the people: look, we went out to the streets and prevented the capitulation; we saved the motherland; let us live.
- The announcement about this rally followed the announcement of the National Assembly of Artsakh and then the rally in Stepanakert. Also, Ishkhan Saghatelyan announced that this was a unity rally. Do you think this solved a substantive problem?
- We can look for alleged connections between the rally in Artsakh and the rally to be held in Yerevan. But I don't want to search. The meaning and significance of the Artsakh rally are high and understandable because it protects the right to live safely and independently on one's land. Since this parliamentary opposition has always manipulated Artsakh and tried to establish itself on that plan, this time, they will project the struggle of the people of Artsakh on themselves and try to generate a famous wave in Yerevan. But it will not work; it is self-deception.
- They claim that they don't want power, but to prevent a new capitulation, according to them, a change of control is necessary. How could I understand?
- Once, they wanted power; now, they don't want it anymore. Well, of course, they won't want to because they know that in this situation, they have to do the same as the current government, and therefore they don't want to go through pain and suffering in these fateful times for Armenia. With mandates in their pockets, they get salaries and bonuses. When they say speak, they speak. It is in a completely comfortable condition. In all cases, whether they want power or not, no one will give it to them, even if Nikol Pashinyan is not the head of administration.
Hayk Magoyan
