Armen Rustamyan Denies Rumors that RPA-ARF Cooperation Aims to Alienate Kocharyan

Head of the ARF parliamentary faction Armen Rustamyan touched upon ANC faction head Levon Zurabyan’s opinion whereas the RPA and ARF signed the cooperation agreement to alienate the second President Robert Kocharyan from the political arena. Rustamyan noted during the briefings that it is surprising that accusations are made towards those political forces,who have a very long history of association with the second president, and talking about this issue are those who labeled Kocharyan as traitor among many other things. “Now they have become his defender? They want Kocharyan to return? When did they want him to return that we didn’t know about it? We were never against Kocharyan, we have cooperated with him and have defended our famous 7 points for more than 20 years, which also happened during Kocharyan’s time. It is not a secret for anyone”, “Armenpress” reports Rustamyan sa ying.

According to Rustamyan, if ARF defends its ideas, it does not mean it’s blocking someone. “We are in a very good relationship with Mr. Kocharyan, and if he decides to be more active in politics, we will only welcome it, because we have that experience. We worked together, and I think during the bad condition of the country, those years were very positive. If we have found a partner with whom it is possible to agree on everything, it does not oppose Kocharyan”, Rustamyan said.

Answering a reporter’s question about the possible fear that the ARF could be used as a tool, Rustamyan said, “It is alright, let them use us as a tool for achieving our own goals. We are a measure ourselves, a measure for achieving our goals. The ARF was created to serve Armenia and the Armenian people”.