The EADaily correspondent discussed the results of the elections to the Council of Elders of the capital of Armenia, Yerevan, that took place the day before with Vardan Ghukasyan, the leader of the “Public Voice” party, which received 9.68% of the votes according to the voting results.
— Mr. Ghukasyan, how were the elections in Yerevan? Are you satisfied with the voting results?
– To be honest, no. A small percentage of the population went to the polls. I expected more, because the population of the city of Yerevan has always demanded more from the state than the residents of the province. But now the dear residents of Yerevan did not go to the polling stations. As they say, most of them had no confidence in this government. And despite the fact that we had been asking our citizens all day and several days before that to go to the polling stations and vote, they did not go. People do not have confidence in all these parties, which, like political gypsies, appear every five years from election to election and then disappear. And people no longer believe in them, and I don’t blame the people.
I am confident that my party will have the opportunity to awaken in citizens faith in politicians, in my party, faith in my words. And, despite the fact that we took fifth place, and should have taken second or third, we will act from this position. Even the 10% of votes that the residents of Yerevan gave us is enough to do everything possible and impossible to eliminate this criminal government from the political arena.
— Does your party intend to join forces with other parties?
— I have already announced that our party, the “Public Voice” party, is ready to create an opposition bloc with those parties that have declared that they are opposition. If Ike Marutyan (Former Yerevan Mayor Hayk Marutyan’s National Progress party won 18.89% of the votes), Andranik Tevanyan (The “Mother Armenia” bloc led by Tevanyan was able to enlist the support of 15.43% of the townspeople) consider themselves to be in fact the opposition, then I extend to them the hand of friendship, at least temporary, but so far I have not received an answer.
Moreover, I announced that our party is not fighting for the mayor’s seat, that is, one of the two party leaders will be the mayor – either Marutyan or Tevanyan. And we lay claim to all departments that conduct supervisory activities in the mayor’s office in order to exclude any kickbacks, corruption schemes, bribes. We know our people, we love to give and receive bribes. Every tender that is held in the city of Yerevan – for asphalt, for flowers, for garbage – there is corruption everywhere. If we do not close the valve to this corruption, then what difference does it make who will be the mayor of Yerevan. There is no difference for people – Avinyan (Tigran Avinyan – the former Deputy Prime Minister of Armenia ran for the ruling Civil Contract party, which received 32.57% of the votes of Yerevan residents) steals or Marutyan.
I don’t want these 22 thousand residents of Yerevan, who entrusted their vote to me, to be disappointed in a few months. And then the question will be: Mr. Ghukasyan, you created a coalition, are you responsible for all the corruption that exists in the mayor’s office? How can I go to parliamentary elections? No way. People don’t believe us. That’s why, if you want a mayor, please, but my personnel will be placed in the supervisory departments of the mayor’s office, and no one will have the right to remove him from there without my knowledge.
Although I also suggested something else. If the block is created, in 96 hours we will have the opportunity to take the first steps towards revolution. That is, in 96 hours, I am sure, our specialists will find a huge corruption scheme involving Mr. Avinyan, who so mediocrely robbed the mayor’s office, and we will submit this entire set of documents to the Prosecutor General’s Office with a demand to arrest the acting mayor. If the General Prosecutor’s Office does not arrest Avinyan, then the people will take to the streets and a revolution will take place. I will personally put shackles on my hands (Prime Minister of Armenia) Nikol Pashinyan. If they detain Avinyan, he, without a second’s hesitation, will write such testimony against Nikol Vovaevich that Dostoevsky himself will envy.
— What is your vision of relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan and Turkey? How viable is the “settlement at any cost” formula that Pashinyan is now trying to implement?
“The entire policy pursued by this government failed in everything – in the economy, in the army, in medicine. After what Pashinyan did, it will be very difficult, but we will get out of this situation. Armenia has no allies, no one wants to be friends with us. This is how, for example, Turkey and Azerbaijan, the USA and Israel are real partners. We don’t have such a partner. Our goal is to find such a partner. In a very short time. I am confident that when the Public Voice party comes to power, we will have such a strategic partner in a very short time. And I am sure that we will have the spirit of the Armenian soldier, the spirit of the Armenian people and everything that is needed for the Armenian army, for the defense of Armenia.
Now you will treat my words with distrust. But if someone once told someone that there would be a person who would sit in front of the camera and swear, insult everyone from A to Z for three years, and in three years he would be able to decide the geopolitical position of an entire republic , and even get so many votes, spending only 12 thousand dollars, you would say that this is impossible. But it happened. The same thing will happen that we will have a real military partner.
– What country will it be?
“For me, it doesn’t matter what country it will be, as long as it is a nuclear power.” Let there be China, Russia, the USA, as long as this country really wants to be an ally, help Armenia, and prevent the Armenian genocide. And Armenia, like a younger brother, will not forget this kindness. And he won’t run from Paris to Washington, from there to Moscow, from Moscow to Delhi, etc. These runs won’t happen. What is the problem with our foreign policy – our politicians could not find their vector, where to go. They ran to the West, then to the East, then to the North. Where are you running to? Decide what you want, who you want, what concepts you want to touch. Take, for example, Serzh Sargsyan, Robert Kocharyan – were friends with Russia, but they allowed Soros-Moros, Jehovah’s Witnesses*, and various sects into the country. They wanted to move towards America, but for some reason the entire economy was given over to the Russians – Gazprom, Russian Railways. This behavior is not normal no matter how you look at it—neither from the United States nor from Russia.
— How should Armenia build relations with Russia?
— The Russian Federation is certainly to blame for the strong anti-Russian sentiment in Armenia. The Russian ambassadors who were sitting in Armenia, the whole huge building of the Russian Embassy, are nothing of themselves. There are parasites, corrupt officials, businessmen – everyone, but not diplomats.
Take an Armenian directory, it’s called “Spyur”, find the numbers of the Russian Embassy and call them – no one picks up the phone at any time of the day. Call the US Embassy – they answer immediately, the UK – they answer immediately. What do your diplomats do? They conduct personal business interests with political mini- or non-mini figures, such as Gagik Tsarukyan etc., for your own benefit. They wrote various reports to the center that such and such a politician was good, he had so many votes, they wrote for bribes. And what’s next? Russia bet on these figures, and the people chose completely different ones. The wrong people are sitting there, that’s Russia’s first fault – putting crazy diplomats in responsible areas.
Azerbaijan attacks Armenia, it already bombed the city of Jermuk in 2020, and what did Russia do? Putin picked up the phone, called Aliyev, said: what are you doing there, this is our ally, who are you bombing, a member of the CSTO, a country that is part of the Eurasian Union? Russia left Armenia alone against these two Muslim countries. But Armenia is like a “cork in a swimming pool.” You remove this traffic jam, and the entire Islamic world will flow straight to Russia. And then the North Caucasus will explode, it will explode so much that it won’t seem like much, together with Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, if the “great state of Turan” is created. Why this corridor, which Erdogan really wants? He wants to blow you up in a couple of years, he wants to encircle Russia. Russia says: we are against the corridor (from Turkey to Azerbaijan through the territory of Armenia – ed.), but Pashinyan wants to open it. Hello, who is Pashinyan to give away a corridor through the territory of Armenia?
— How effectively does Armenia work with Iran and Georgia?
– Zero. There is no work between Iran and Armenia, and the same with Georgia. We don’t have normal relations with anyone. Why send money from the Armenian Ministry of Defense to Hong Kong to buy something worth $8 million there (these are documents that came into my hands, an offshore office, it doesn’t exist), if you have Iran across the Araks River. With $8 million, how many Iranian Shahid drones could we buy? Thousands. When such drones rained on Azerbaijan, could Azerbaijan win? This is the government that is now in Armenia, Nikol Pashinyan is the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Azerbaijan and Turkey to Armenia. There will be no Armenia, I assure you, the North Caucasus will explode completely. It won’t seem enough.
I also want to add. They talk about Nagorno-Karabakh all the time. Artsakh was never part of either Azerbaijan or Armenia; Nagorno-Karabakh was part of the Russian Empire. Now, in order to resolve the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh once and for all, there are two ways – either Nagorno-Karabakh is taken by Russia, the issue is closed, or Nagorno-Karabakh must be divided between Armenia and Azerbaijan, then Nagorno-Karabakh no longer exists. This issue will be a hot spot on our minds; every 5-10 years, soldiers will die on both sides, both Azerbaijanis and Armenians. Let Russia take Karabakh for itself. And the issue will be closed forever. Just as they distributed passports in Lugansk and Donetsk, distribute them in Nagorno-Karabakh. Or should we share? Because now Azerbaijan is stronger, in 5-10 years Armenia will be stronger, the army will attack and win, and in 15-20 years Azerbaijan will attack Armenia, Artsakh, and so on. Armenians cannot live with Azerbaijanis, it is impossible, we are enemies. At a minimum, three generations must change in order to somehow smooth out the topic. The most objective option is either to divide, or Russia takes Artsakh for itself.
*Extremist organization, banned in the Russian Federation
2023-09-18 17:20:00
#personally #put #shackles #Nikol #Pashinyans #hands #interview #Vardan #Ghukasyan #EADaily
