The Opposition is a Member of the National Assembly Today, Tomorrow it Will be Some 'Garadskoy Duma': Vahagn Aleksanyan

I want to confess from this podium that, in my impression, the vice president of the Republican Party, Eduard Sharmazanov, stands out in the Armenian opposition political landscape for his honesty and perceptiveness.

This was stated by Vahagn Aleksanyan, a member of the My Step alliance, from the National Assembly podium.

“Mr. Sharmazanov is a fantastic character; he regularly reveals everything that the collective opposition carefully wants to hide. First, Mr. Sharmazanov spoke about the corridor, disclosing the opposition's plans regarding the corridor, and recently, Eduard Sharmazanov made a no less fantastic post,” said Aleksanyan, quoting two sentences from Sharmazanov's statement: “The homeland is permanent and eternal; the state is variable; the borders of the state can expand and contract.”

Then he raised the question: what does this mean?

“For our opposition, the state is variable; today they are members of the National Assembly, tomorrow they will be some representatives of the 'Garadskoy Duma' in the 'Armjanskoy Oblast'; it doesn’t matter to them—the state is variable. Today, our opposition colleagues call the Republic of Armenia a tri-color, tomorrow they will refer to another tri-color—a tri-color with a white top; there is no difference,” he said.

According to Aleksanyan, this reveals an ideological difference: “For us, the Republic of Armenia is irreplaceable; the independence of the Republic of Armenia is unnegotiable, whereas for these people, it is not, and they openly state this; all further conclusions are yours—Republic of Armenia or 'Armjanskaya Oblast',” he stated.