Armenian
News Network / Groong
Conversations on Groong:
ARF Roadmap and Challenges
ANN/Groong
June 11, 2021
Guest
●
Giro Manoyan
Hosts
●
Asbed Kotchikian
●
Hovik Manucharyan
●
Asbed Bedrossian
Introduction
Hello
and welcome to the Armenian News Network, Groong,
I’m Asbed Bedrossian. In this Conversations
on Groong episode Asbed Kotchikian, Hovik
Manucharyan, and I will be talking about the Armenian parliamentary elections
coming up on June 20th.
This
episode was recorded on Monday, June 7, 2021.
ARF Roadmap and Challenges
Overview
Different political
forces in Armenia have coalesced and are geared up to participate in what could
be the most competitive elections in the country’s recent 25-year history. We’re interviewing representatives of the
various contending parties in the elections to discuss and understand not only
their strategy in the elections, but also how they plan to meet the immediate
challenges facing Armenia in the post-war period. One of those parties, the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun has had a long history of
operating both as a political organization in the diasporas as well as
political party in Armenia.
Guests
Discussion
Let’s start with the
past couple of years in Armenian politics, but 2020 in
particular.
● The ARF initially supported Pashinyan’s
candidacy for PM in May 2018 but soon after it was excluded from the National
Assembly following the December 2018 elections, it became increasingly critical
of the government. What are your thoughts about the state of the Armenian
government and Armenia since Pashinyan and My Step came to power in 2018?
From the beginning of
the war in September 2020, the ARF, along with the global Armenian nation,
mobilized its resources for the defense of Artsakh
● Do you think that this war was unavoidable? What
were the mistakes that led us into a war we could not win? Once Azerbaijan
attacked, was it a foregone outcome that it would end up the way it did?
On June 20th there
will be early parliamentary elections in Armenia and the ARF has forged an
electoral alliance with former president Robert Kocharyan and the Hayastan Dashinq. The latest MPG and IRI polls show that the Civil
Contract party is essentially tied with the Hayastan Dashinq.
● What is your assessment of the way the upcoming
elections are shaping up?
● A major issue in the upcoming elections is the
issue of post-war Armenia’s policies. What are the ARF’s priorities for the new
government after the elections, and how would they be achieved?
The ARF is one of the
major Armenian organizations spanning our global community from the republic,
to the middle east, Europe and the Americas.
● Are you satisfied with the level of Armenia-Diaspora relations? What’s your
vision for where these relations could be, or should be?
● What is the role of the Diaspora?
There have been
recent frictions inside the ARF, and very uncharacteristically this internal
rift has spilled outside the party. There have been Bureau statements about the
US West Central Committee, and US West statements about the Bureau.
● What is the root-cause of this rift?
● Is this the right time for the ARF to be having
these internal divisions?
● How do you see the party reconciling and recovering
from this, and moving forward as a united organization?
References
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
ARF, Dashnaktsutyun,
ARF Bureau, ARF Western USA, Armenia, Artsakh, Armenian Diaspora, United
States, USA, Artsakh, Nagorno Karabakh, 44-day war, Elections, Borders, Self
Determination, Asbed Kotchikian,
Asbed Bedrossian,
