Expert blog: Wide political agenda will not be set up

Secretary of Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) parliamentary faction Naira Zohrabian declared that the non-coalition forces of the National Assembly are working on the formation of a wide political agenda. On the one hand, from the viewpoint of efficient cooperation of these four forces in the parliament, the formation of a wide agenda can be an efficient means of a joint struggle against the NA majority and the government in general, but on the other hand it is rather difficult to imagine the possibility of setting up a wide agenda.

In the narrow sense, the non-pro-government forces of the NA displayed their will to form a united front regarding various bills or initiatives, but forming a wide agenda is difficult in the sense that out of these non-coalition forces, ARFD and BHK parties are connected with the authorities by means of certain threads.

In addition to the fact that ARF-Dashnaktsutyun Bureau member Hrant Margarian has repeatedly stated about his meetings with the president and discussions on various subjects, ARFD representatives obviously cooperate with the authorities, especially on the foreign policy agenda. It is no accident that ARFD member Vahan Hovhannisian was appointed Armenian ambassador to Germany, one of the leading European countries. Besides, a number of ARFD representatives work as diplomats in other countries, such as Hrayr Karapetian who is the Armenian consul in Saint Petersburg.

The same (with some nuances) is true for BHK that has quite large political and economic resources, but is also connected with the authorities by its past and present. The fact that the leader of BHK declares that their party cannot be an opposition force means that there are factors (some agreements and compromises) that prevent BHK from acting from a tough position. The matter concerns first of all the idea of a complete change of power, and as regards the resignation of the government and especially the prime minister, this issue has some fine points. Let us suppose that the prime minister resigns and a HHK member or a figure enjoying HHK’s confidence is appointed instead of him. In this case, what common approach will be taken by the non-coalition forces? No doubt, Armenian National Congress (HAK) will maintain that it is a great achievement on the road of success, but what about the others? Does the problem lie in specific persons, or..? There are several important steps that cause uncertainty in advance, which endangers the wide agenda formation issue.

No matter how much BHK secretary speaks about the wide agenda formation initiative , it is obvious that BHK too will have reservations about the formation of a wide agenda.

The situation is especially uncertain in case of Heritage faction, but the problem is not in the party’s connection with authorities by means of various threads, but in the fact that Rubik Hakobian represents Heritage Party in the NA, another representative – Tevan Poghosian is a member of the faction, but not the party, while the former head of the faction Ms. Zaruhi Postanjian chose to spend 5-6 months in the Unites States to attend a course. The other two members of Heritage faction – Khachatur Kokobelian and Alexander Arzumanian should be viewed from another perspective: despite being active, they are engaged in a party building process: the new HHSh is in the formation stage, and it is impossible to associate them with Heritage. Disagreements, rather than common approaches connect them.

The situation is completely different in HAK, a party that has adopted a most radical position. In this sense HAK has no allies in the parliament: if ARFD and BHK intended to wage such a struggle, then BHK would act as an opposition force, while ARFD would not cooperate with the authorities in any format.

A comparison of facts and events clearly shows that the non-coalition forces’ initiative to set up a wide agenda has no future.

It is quite another matter that under the slogan of ‘forming a wide agenda’ the non-pro-government forces of the National Assembly may raise less large-scale problems to be ambitiously formulated, but in reality they will limit themselves to a local struggle.