What Will You Answer When Asked About Your Position? You’ll Say: Armenian, Armenia, Homeland and God. Deputy Mayor

There are two issues concerning all recent opposition movements: the first is the lack of substance; you do not have a position, you have slogans, toast speeches, appealing statements. This was stated today, on May 14th, by Deputy Mayor Suren Grigoryan, addressing the action of the opposition faction during the Yerevan City Council session.

During the regular session of the council, members of the opposition 'Mother Armenia' alliance boycotted the meeting holding up papers stating 'We oppose unilateral concessions' and then left the hall.

“I want to understand, when you want to assume power, well, let us imagine that by some miracle you took it. When negotiations are going on, you are asked: what is your position on this or that issue? You will look people in the eye and say: Armenian, Armenia, homeland, and God. Do you seriously imagine that the process will go this way, and will someone accept you adequately at that moment?

The lack of substance excludes any chance of success in any process, because people can be endlessly satisfied with us or endlessly dissatisfied, but as long as the position is not voiced, you have no chance of succeeding,” said Grigoryan.

According to Grigoryan, this position does not sound, because in reality, if they voiced their true stance, they would also have no chance of succeeding. “In other words, you are in a zugzwang situation and I do not understand why you perpetually promote the same process, the same theses with different faces,” he added.

In Suren Grigoryan's view, the second problem is that the opposition does not understand, apart from having a stance, that their issue is not with the Civil Contract political party, but with the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia. “When it is said that power belongs to the people, and that the form of its realization is through elections, you are not saying, let’s have early elections; you are saying, give us power. The Prime Minister rightly said: is power a stray thing that we can give you? The power belongs to the people. It is clear why you do not demand elections because the electoral format is not yours,” he concluded.