Sharmazanov: Serzh Sargsyan to address people in run-up to constitutional referendum

 In the run-up to the constitutional referendum, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is likely to address the people, Eduard Sharmazanov, Spokesman for the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Vice Speaker of the Armenian Parliament, told journalists.  "The President will most likely address the people during a press conference or through a televised speech," he said.        

When commenting on the second president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan's interview with DW, in which he says that the draft constitutional reforms will not decentralize the power, Sharmazanov stressed, "To all appearances, Kocharyan does not quite understand the objective of the constitutional reforms. The reforms aim to ensure stable governance, not power decentralization".        

Sharmazanov said that the latest interview of Kocharyan is not so critical as the previous interviews of the second president. "His recent interviews contained unacceptable and wrong conclusions. The same cannot be said about this interview," he said.  

As regards Kocharyan's statement that Azerbaijan will keep intensively violating the ceasefire until Yerevan's statements about retaliatory measures against the adversary are put into practice, Sharmazanov noted, "Apparently, the second president does not hold full information about the situation in the conflict zone. Otherwise, he would not state that Armenia's statements about retaliatory measures against Azerbaijan remain just statements".      

To note, when commenting on the constitutional reforms, Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, says in an interview with DW: "The thing is that the new draft constitution guarantees parliamentary majority of one party only. Not a single country with developed democracy has such a thing. I think this contains big risks. The impression is that an attempt is being made to create a new ruling force." He says that the constitutional reforms are supposed to decentralize the centralized presidential power, but it will not be decentralization. In the reality, the reforms will centralize the power in the hands of one party, Kocharyan says.       

When speaking of the tense situation in the Karabakh conflict zone, Kocharyan says that if one of the conflicting parties thinks that the talks are not a path to full-scale settlement but only a background to reduce the ceasefire violations, the ceasefire will unambiguously be violated even more frequently. "I will also say with confidence that if the Armenian authorities' statements about retaliatory measures remain just statements, the ceasefire violations will grow," he stresses.  

Kocharyan also criticizes Yerevan's policy with respect to the EU, particularly, the refusal to initial the Association Agreement and the decision to join the Eurasian Economic Union. "As regards the damage inflicted to the image of Armenia by the U-turn, which was absolutely unexpected for both Europeans and the Armenian society, I can say that we will feel the effects of that damage for a long time," he says.