Does the 'Armenia' Alliance Collaborate with the Current Authorities? Naira Zohrabyan Answers Media Questions

Yesterday, the 'Armenia' alliance announced that it is suspending its participation in all international organizations and will not attend meetings organized outside Armenia until all restrictions and bans imposed on its parliamentary members are lifted.

In a conversation with ArmDaily.am, former MP Naira Zohrabyan stated that it is essential to understand whether this decision is a result of political immaturity or a carefully thought-out, planned decision. "I want to think positively about the 'Armenia' alliance and refute the widely held belief in political and media circles that this is a clearly planned decision aimed at not interfering with the government's actions on international platforms. I want to believe that this is merely the result of serious political inexperience, because today the parliamentary opposition has no role in the Armenian parliament. Their utility rate is not only zero but also works against them every day and strengthens Nikol Pashinyan," Zohrabyan said.

She emphasized that if the parliamentary opposition could be helpful anywhere, it would be on international platforms, assemblies, and organizations. "If they rightly declare that the parliamentary majority has undermined this government’s parliamentary diplomacy and foreign relations, and they refuse to go to the OSCE, which handles the Nagorno-Karabakh issue, and they refuse to visit EurAsian assemblies, where Azerbaijan is also a member, they could discuss face to face with Azerbaijani MPs and counter them. If they refuse to go to the PACE, where humanitarian, humanitarian rights issues are being discussed, and where they should raise the issues of Armenian prisoners of war and the war crimes committed by Azerbaijan during the last war in Artsakh, including the use of chemical weapons and white phosphorus. The international community is the only platform where the parliamentary opposition can prove that their mandates were justified," she stressed.

Zohrabyan also expressed her confusion towards the fact that yesterday opposition MPs’ assistants were attacked, yet today they are "politely complying". "Their faction leader is reciting a text in vain, after which they continue to work. This was an absolutely reckless, absolutely unpolitical decision lacking any justification, because today we have so many issues to resolve in international platforms—the issues of our captives, the issues of displaced people from Artsakh, the cultural vandalism currently being practiced by Azerbaijan in the occupied Armenian territories. These are issues that cannot be solved through letters. They say, 'Well, we will write a letter to our international partners.' They don’t care about your letters; they will not even open the emails sent by you demonstratively, and will say, 'If they had something to say, they should have come here and said it on these platforms,'" the former MP said.

She termed the opposition’s actions as a betrayal, a betrayal of prisoners of war and the people of Artsakh, whose territories and cultural monuments are being desecrated by Azerbaijani and Turkish vandals. "I hope that at least 'I have Honor' does not follow this reckless decision. At least the four MPs from 'I have Honor' will raise for us the extraordinarily urgent and critical issues today, among which the issues concerning our captives are paramount. By the way, we have complete consensus with the international community, and we need to keep this issue hot and raise it persistently every day," Zohrabyan emphasized.

Regarding the reason given by the 'Armenia' alliance that they took such a step due to the illegal detention of their MPs and other illegal restrictions on the movements of other MPs, including those in delegations, Zohrabyan responded: "They should be even more motivated to take the mandate from international structures so that they could raise these issues in international platforms—in Strasbourg, during plenary sessions—about, for example, how Arush Arushanyan, who was elected by the people's vote, continues to remain in custody, that the honorable doctor, who has serious health issues, of whom I am in constant contact with his wife, continues to be detained, that the government arbitrarily prevents Armen Gevorgyan from leaving Armenia and attending PACE sessions. They should have been at international structures to raise these issues. I do not know who advised the leadership of this political team on this reckless decision, but I have the legitimate right to think that these advisors simply worked against the 'Armenia' alliance."

As for the opinion that this decision is a result of cooperation between the 'Armenia' alliance and the authorities, Zohrabyan said she does not hold that view. "I can imagine numerous MPs there and can envision them going into cooperation with whatever faction of the ruling side, but I simply cannot envision under any circumstances Robert Kocharyan engaging in collaboration with Nikol," she concluded.