Republican Party of Armenia

“The sultan of Azerbaijan has made another absurd statement. This is not for the first time that he has spoken about conquering of Yerevan and Armenia. Thisis absurd and delirious,” - RPA spokesman Eduard Sharmazanovsaidin the interview with reporters after the session of the executive body of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA).

 

“It is unacceptable when a leader of any country in the 21^stcentury speaks about taking territories from a neighboring country. In the person of the Sultan of Azerbaijan we deal with the 21^st century Hitler. Adolf Hitler once made similar statements regarding Sudetenland, Poland, the USSR and other countries,” - said Sharmazanov.

 

According to him, such statements make smile any person, who is more or less aware of the history: “The state of Azerbaijan is not even 100 years old, so what historic territories they speak about. Cicero used to say following about empty-headed people: “The empty boiler rings loudly.” This is applicable to him, too. It's not the first time such statements are made by him,” - said the NA Vice Speaker.

 

He reminded that former Azerbaijani President AbulfazElchibey had even appointed an hour when he would drink tea on Lake Sevan: “We have seen that as a result of such statements, Azerbaijan suffered defeat. This shows that Azerbaijan is not ready for the negotiation process and aims to extend it,” - concluded Sharmazanov.

 

He also mentioned that during the session of the RPA Supreme Body issues concerning the internal political agenda, foreign policy and security issues were discussed.

 

Touching upon the issue of the fourth President of the Republic of Armenia, Eduard Sharmazanov said that Armen Sargsyan has not decided yet whether he is nominated as a presidential candidate or not, so far the Republican Party does not have reason to negotiate or notwith other parliamentary forces on this issue.

 

In answer to the question, whether RPA and PAA are negotiating to vote for Armen Sargsyan during the presidential election, E. Sharmazanov said that in the nearest future Armen Sargsyan will meet with the opposition factions and will announce his decision.

“Maybe after that, the oppositionists will decide to vote for Armen Sargsyan’s candidacy and there will be no need for negotiations,” - he added.

 

Sharmazanov said that he and AraBabloyan, NA Speaker have not meet Armen Sargsyan yet and are not aware of hisplans.

 

Coalition partnership does not mean that the parties should have the same opinion in all matters, referring to the ARF statement that it is necessary to reconsider the rating system, Eduard Sharmazanov said.

 

“We respect the opinions of all powers- “Way Out”, “Tsarukyan Alliance” and our coalition partner, but with respect to specific proportional open lists, we can say that these so-called rating lists justified themselves,” – said Mr. Sharmazanov

 

He noted that the goal of the RPA is to implement a democratic proportional election.

 

“Elections of April 2, 2017 were declared by all international observer missions as democratic,” - the RPA spokesman said.

 

“Moreover, in my deepest conviction, these territorial lists are more democratic. If the proportional list is fully defined by the party governing body, the presence of territorial lists gives our citizens the opportunity to decide who they want to see in the parliament,” - said E. Sharmazanov.

 

The RPA spokesman noted that the presence of territorial lists gives the voters of the area the opportunity to have their own MP.

 

“We do not see the need to revise the rating lists today,” - Eduard Sharmazanovadded.