17/09/2014 18:48
ARFD not to participate in rally due to differences over reforms
ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Party will not take part in the joint rally of three parliamentary political forces in Liberty Square of Yerevan on October 10, the head of ARFD parliamentary faction Armen Rustamyan told journalists today after the meeting of the four factions.
In his words, their refusal to participate in the rally is due to differences over the constitutional reforms: ARFD does not share the viewpoint of the three other parties on the issue.
“The constitutional reforms have always been important to ARFD. It is not an end in itself and we are in favor of constitutional reforms so that the country could transfer to a more civilized model of government. This is impossible without constitutional reforms. We have our own package of documents that we are ready to discuss with other political forces and submit to the parliament,” the deputy said.
According to him, the constitutional reforms are one of the most important issues on the political agenda and ARFD made that decision since it is hard to imagine how a joint rally on incompatible views can be held.
“We cannot imagine a joint rally in case of incompatible approaches. In this way we would hinder the rally and fail to send a clear ‘message’ to people. The rally pursues a concrete purpose,” Rustamyan said.
In his words, the constitutional reforms are of importance not only to ARFD, but also the country and since the opinions of the parties diverge on this issue, ARFD’s decision not to participate in the rally is correct.
“We always supported holding a rally, but the constitutional reforms were not on the agenda. The matter concerned summarization of 12 points and further actions based on that. We will continue cooperating on this issue. That is, the four parties are ready to continue working in the parliament over some issue, but at the moment we are separating from our partners and this decision is also a joint one,” he noted.
As was reported earlier, the four parliamentary forces not making part of the ruling coalition released 12 demands to the authorities on June 10. The demands are related to full abolition of the compulsory accumulative pension system, restoration of Nairit Plant, review of traffic violation fines, transition to 100% proportional system, and refusal to be involved in any international integration likely to damage the common economic space of Armenia and Nagorno Karabakh.