ARF-D is decentralized party, says Nagorno-Karabakh rep.

Photo by Emedia.am
A representative of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaksutyun's (ARF-D) Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) Central Committee has described the party as a decentralized political force not meddling in electoral processes.
Speaking to Tert.am, David Ishkhanyan explained that those policies require the ARF-D's headquarters in Artsakh and Armenia to take a neutral stance on the presidential elections in each other's countries.
"We held a presidential election just a couple of months ago, and the Armenian office had no intervention – direct or indirect – in the policy line adopted by the [Nagorno-Karabakh] headquarters. And the same goes for Armenia," he said, when asked to comment on the party's diverging views in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia.ARF-D top figures (including members of the Supreme Body and the Bureau) periodically meet with the opposition Heritage party's leader, Raffi Hovhannisian, who was President Serzh Sargsyan's runner-up in the February 18 election. Different members of the party also attend Hovhannisian's post-election rallies at Yerevan's Liberty Square to address their messages to the people. It is noteworthy in this context that Nagorno-Karabakh Prime Minister Arthur Aghabekyan, who is affiliated with the party, recently called upon the people in Karabakh to refrain from the protest demonstrations in Armenia's capital. "That's fire which they use to pl ay with the security of Artsakh," he said.
Asked whether such a posture does not reflect the ARF-Ds criticism of its own colleagues in Armenia, Ishkhanyan recommended against linking the premier's remark with the Armenian opposition. He said Aghabekyan made the statement as a government official, not as a representative of a political force.
"He mentioned clearly that he has been in both the ruling authorities and the opposition and addressed his statuses in both Armenia and Karabakh. Arthur Aghabekyan directs his words straightforwardly to Artsakh and its people," he said, adding that Artsakh has never been directly involved in presidential elections in Armenia.
Ishkhanyan noted that the premier's remark was voiced during a speech in parliament.
In later comments to Tert.am, Vahan Hovhannesyan of the ARF-D Bureau said he believes Aghabekyan simply wanted to warn the people in Karabakh to avoid provokers.
"I can only guess he meant the possible provokers who are by all means present at the square," Hovhannesyan told our reporter.   Read more... (377 words)

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