The results of the intra-power
confrontation between the Republican Party of Armenia and the Prosperous
Armenia Party are obvious. Who do you think can occupy the vacant place of the
system opposition?
Actually,
there is no opposition in the political system of Armenia. We see the system
becoming more and more homogeneous. From now on, the "opposition"
will only include small, poorly organized forces, which will regularly set up
unstable "unions". These
processes will be managed by the rules set by the head of the incumbent regime,
which will retain all the key levers. He will always be able to punish the
"oppositionists" who violate the rules or to destroy the
"unions" created by the "oppositionists". The distortion of
Armenia's political system has approached 100%. This means that the regime will
keep robbing the country, making the people migrate and it will choose the
direction leading to cession of Artsakh and sovereignty. The "opposition"
will only imitate a political fight and mislead the people. In fact, the
intra-system "opposition" is turning from a junior partner into a
power representative for miserable wages. As long as Armenia is colonized, this
will go on at the expense of our national interests. Therefore, being engaged in the processes
inside the system runs counter to the interests of our nation and state. In
this light, the people should become politically organized outside the system,
liquidate the ruling regime and improve the system. Our movement has been
working for many years to attain that goal. The Founding Parliament, which was
set up on Jan 10, will shortly become a representative body to express the
people's will. The Founding Parliament will replace the ruling regime after the
former liquidates the latter. The formation of the Founding Parliament is not
accomplished yet; our doors are open to all honest and fighting people. We have
already announced that we will launch the process of liquidation of the regime
on April 24 by means of civil disobedience.
The opponents of the Founding Parliament
regularly criticize the "Centennial Without the Regime” Movement for the intention to
use April 24 for domestic political purposes. Could you tell me the real motive
of the Movement and the agenda for April 24?
The
statements suggesting that our movement looks to use April 24 for domestic
policy purposes are either delusion or false presentation of facts by the
incumbent authorities. We must take into account Armenia's colonization. In
such countries, there can be one type of fight
- national-liberation. Such countries lack a political system.
Consequently, in such countries, there can be no domestic political
confrontation between political parties. The true motive of our movement meets
the national interests - upheaval of April 24 and use of the energy that day
for the noble goal of creating a nation-state. It is high time for the people
to realize that without a nation-state they are doomed to new genocides and are
now suffering 'white' genocide. Therefore, April 24 must help us stop the
ongoing genocide and prevent new ones. Perceiving April 24 exclusively as a
mourning and commemoration day is devastating for the people. April 24 must
mark the start of revival, restoration of justice and establishment of the
national statehood. We are not going to
take any steps that would impede the April 24 events. We will visit the
Genocide Memorial to give tribute to the victims. However, we will use the
other part of the day to build a nation-sate.
Why do you think the Artsakh authorities
displayed an unreasonable attitude to the car rally participants in Berdzor?
Artsakh
is the knot tying Armenia to the cart of colonization. Our movement reveals
that knot, grounds the need to undo it and at the same time demonstrates how to
do it. In the meantime, that knot is a viable issue for the head of the ruling
regime in Armenia and its vicars in Stepanakert. This is how we explain the
violence against the Founding Parliament in Berdzor. The authorities of Armenia
and the NKR are the worthy successors of their spiritual parent, sadly
remembered Boris Kevorkov, who openly declared the inadmissibility of the
Karabakh movement in 1988 because "Karabakh was the status of his life". Later we saw Kevorkov's weakness. His
successors will also shortly lose their levers of governing.
One of the RPA parliamentarians blamed the Founding
Parliament for "receiving funding from Azerbaijan and Turkey". I am
well aware of your opinion about foreign sources of funding for political
movements and parties. Nevertheless, what do you think this provocation was
aimed at?
A
three-stage plan to ruin our movement was developed before the car rally to
Artsakh. The plan was as follows: demonization of our movement before the car
rally, violence against the participants and justification of that violence. It
became evident later that the violence planned against us was to have more
grave consequences - murders or arrests - but it did not happen due to our well-organized
actions. To justify the demonization of the movement and violence against it, a
special propaganda was launched and the necessary actors - political, secret
and information - were chosen for that. The parliamentarian makes provocative
statements to fulfill his part of the plan.
Russia’s unclear response to the Gyumri
tragedy and continuous supply of arms to Azerbaijan, the enemy of Russia’s
“strategic ally” Armenia create a situation demonstrating upcoming radical
changes in the regional geopolitics. Some experts think that one of the
components of these changes will be the withdrawal of the 102nd
military base from Armenia. What do you think of the latest geopolitical
changes in the region?
We advocate allied relations, including
strategic ones, and we are convinced that they should be based on the
principles of equality and mutual benefits. They should not affect the dignity
or sovereignty of either of the parties. A strategic ally should not arm the
enemy of its ally. Such a behavior of a strategic ally is unacceptable to us.
On the other hand, it is important for us to ensure Armenia's defensive
capacity with our own efforts. Allied
relations are desirable, however, the allies' support should be secondary. One
should not build the country's security system relying on the force of another
country, even an ally. In the meantime, the serious trends of geopolitical
changes in the South Caucasus lead to clashes, redrawing of borders, changes in
the foreign forces' influence on the region. Armenia should stop being a
passive observer. It should become an independent subject. In that case,
Armenia will be able not only to avoid getting in the way of the high and
mighties and turning into a small coin, but also to become a full-fledged
participant in these trends and to turn into a regional factor using the
results of the forthcoming perturbations. For that purpose we need at least to
become a bridge on the Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Europe and
Iran-Armenia-Georgia-Russia axes. To perform that task, in 1988-94 we were able
to liberate Artsakh and create premises for close ties with Iran. However, the
problem cannot be resolved completely without Nakhijevan and its communication
capacities. Given the unrealistic nature of the project on construction of a railway
via Syunik, the priority is to establish Armenian control over Nakhijevan in
the light of the upcoming regional impulses. Here we have also a very
important, crucial circumstance - a new generation, which has been formed over
the years of independence, as well as a developing healthy, viable and
sovereign political generation in Armenia and Diaspora. When developing and
conducting a policy, the foreign forces and we should take this circumstance
into consideration.