Today we’re joined by:
|
Armen Ashotyan, who is
the vice president of the Republican Party of Armenia. From 2005 to 2007, Mr.
Ashotyan was a member of the National Assembly, and
chaired the Committee on Foreign Relations. From 2009 to 2017, Ashotyan served as Minister of Education and Science. In
2017, Ashotyan was elected to the parliament again
and served there until the Dec 2018 snap parliamentary elections. |
|
Discussion
It’s been just over two years since the 2018
elections that resulted in the RPA, the Republican Party of Armenia, became an
extra-parliamentary party for the first time in over two decades. There have
been many questions about what exactly happened in 2018. What happened in
April-May, what took place in October, and then what happened during the
elections in December?
Vazgen
Manukyan has been critical of foreign-funded Western NGOs and during his
various speeches he has talked about more regulation for such funding. Does
that also represent the RPA’s position? Where does the RPA stand on these NGOs?
The Homeland Salvation Movement has accused Nikol Pashinyan of treason for
signing the capitulation agreement of Nov 9/10. We also heard your movement
raise alarm signals prior to Pashinyan’s trip to Moscon on January 11, with the movement warning
that:
“any decision taken against the interests of
Armenia and Artsakh will be recognized as illegitimate, will be rejected by the
Armenian people, will not be ratified and will be annulled after the change of
power.”
Do you believe that the January 11 agreement to
open rail communications was against the interests of Armenia or Artsakh?
If, as the opposition claims, Pashinyan truly is a traitor then many, even among your
supporters, are wondering why the movement isn’t more active in protesting or
removing Pashinyan? Why aren’t there more people in
the streets?
What is your party’s position on the electoral
reform currently being discussed in the NA? On that note why did the RPA not
vote for the government’s proposal to reduce the threshold for parties and
electoral alliances to 4% and 6% respectively back in 2018?
What were the lessons learned from the results
of the December 2018 elections for the RPA?
What is your party’s vision for Armenia and for RPA’s role in that new
Armenia, over the next 5-10 years?
Wrap-up
That concludes this Conversations On
Groong episode. We hope it was
helpful in your understanding of some of the issues involved. We look forward
to your feedback, including your suggestions for Conversation topics in
the future. Contact us on our website, at groong.org, or on our Facebook Page “ANN - Groong”, or in
our Facebook Group “Groong - Armenian News
Network”.
Special thanks to Laura
Osborn for providing the music for our podcast. On behalf of everyone in this
episode, we wish you a good week. Don’t forget to subscribe to our channels, Like our pages and follow us on social media. Thank you for
listening and we’ll talk to you soon.
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Keywords
Primary: Armen Ashotyan, Serge Sargsyan, Republican Party of Armenia, RPA, HHK, Hanrapetakan, Homeland Salvation Movement,
Additional: Nikol Pashinyan, Vazgen Mannukyan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Nagorno Karabakh, Karabakh, Artsakh, War, January 11, November 9, November 10, Opposition, Minister of Education and Science, National Assembly, Snap Elections, 2018 Elections, Velvet Revolution