Year later – retrospective glance at failed dialogue

A year ago, on these August days, the 6-round long dialogue between the former political coalition – Republican Party of Armenia-Prosperous Armenia party-Rule of Law and Armenian National Congress opposition bloc entered the intensive phase.
 
The official launch of the dialogue was given on July 18 ending on August 26 when the ANC delegation did not attend the regular meeting with the Congress coordinator Levon Zurabyan stating about suspension of their participation in the dialogue due to the arrest of ANC activists Tigran Arakelyan and six others on August 9.
 
That time the ANC agreed its position with the existence of new political prisoners while the authorities were blaming the Congress for the failure of the dialogue.
 
Today the ANC and the Republican Party continue ascribing the blame to each other. "When there is a tough side, naturally, dialogues are being suspended," head of the RPA faction Galust Sahakyan told Tert.am, casting retrospective glance at the events of a year ago.
 
ANC member Vladimir Karapetyan said that time Congress responded adequately to the arrest of Tigran Arakelyan and it could not continue the talks in conditions of having political hostages.
 
"The circumstance that Tigran Arakelyan continues being in prison till now shows that the authorities were intending to keep the ANC representative as a political prisoner and do it till now. Both our society and international community see that no essential changes have been registered in Armenia with the authorities still maintaining the same working style," Karapetyan said.
 
Prosperous Armenia party representative at the dialogue Naira Zohrabyan said the reason of suspension of the dialogue was the absence of will from both parties. "It would have been possible to overcome the obstacles and even the most serious disputes in case of the will to carry out the important initiative that could have led to the formation of a new political culture in the country," Zohrabyan said.
 
She dismissed the opinion that the dialogue was just an imitation, saying it was an attempt to overcome the gap dividing the society.
 
Asked whether the dialogue gave anything or nothing at all, Naira Zohrabyan described it as the first step. "Of course it will be wrong to say it was a success. But the atmosphere existing today in the parliament, the attempts to cooperate over different issues may be considered acknowledgement of the necessity of dialogue," she said.
 
In response to the same question, ANC representative Vladimir Karapetyan said in any case the public must not lose hope that there is a possibility of a breakthrough in country's development through political means – the belief with which the ANC entered the dialogue.
"We could not have lost the opportunity but the authorities responded to our tough position with arresting one of our members and till now they continue relating with the opposition by using force," Karapetyan said.
 
The RPA representative Galust Sahakyan said the dialogue was useful for establishing relations between the role-makers of the political field.   Read more... (510 words)

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