Narek Karapetyan: "Strong Armenia" has chosen the path of unification  with new forces

ArmInfo. Samvel Karapetyan's "Strong Armenia" party respects all political forces that have expressed a desire to participate as a united front in Armenia's parliamentary elections. However,  they has chosen to unite  only with the new forces.

Narek Karapetyan, a board member of the "Strong Armenia" party, made this statement in an interview with  Public Television. He said that they believe  that unification is crucial for the country today, which is why they have stated their readiness to hold discussions with anyone who values change in the country. 

"After that, many forces expressed a desire to unite with us. We  respect all of these forces, but we have chosen to unite with the new  forces," Karapetyan noted. Clarifying  this choice, the party board  member noted that, in their opinion, the political field needs to be  expanded and voters need to be presented with new "faces." "That is,  people's choices shouldn't be limited to four 'names,'" Karapetyan  said.

He then commented on claims that, if the "Strong Armenia" party  crosses the electoral threshold, it intends to vote for Armenia's  second president, Robert Kocharyan, and form a coalition with him. He  noted that recently, they have frequently witnessed various people  making statements on behalf of their political party that not only  have nothing to do with reality, but also essentially contradict  statements already made by the party. 

"We've already said that we will vote for Samvel Karapetyan as the  leader of our country. But no one is talking about this; information  is being spread that has nothing to do with the actual state of  affairs," the party board member noted. Regarding coalitions,  Karapetyan noted that there's no point in discussing something that  is the result of the Armenian people's choice. "I see no point in  commenting on this until the Armenian people have made their choice.  But I'm sure they already know one thing: either they elect Samvel  Karapetyan, who will change everything, or they elect Prime Minister  Nikol Pashinyan, and everything will remain as it is now-an  atmosphere of fear in relations with neighbors, poverty in the  country, and so on," Karapetyan noted.

He also touched on amendments to the Electoral Code, which prohibit  the use of personal names in  parties and blocs. In this regard, he  noted that of all the political forces intending to participate in  the elections, only their bloc contains a personal name-"Strong  Armenia with Samvel Karapetyan." "So, the ruling Civil Contract party  organized a discussion within 24 hours and amended the law. And  what's most interesting is that even international organizations  recorded this, issuing statements afterwards stating that such  changes were unacceptable before the elections. And all this was  simply because of Samvel Karapetyan's name.  What is this, if not an  expression of fear? Meanwhile, Samvel Karapetyan's reputation is a  guarantee to society that we will do everything we promise. We  certainly talk about our programs, but it's also important to show  who will be the guarantor of their implementation-Samvel Karapetyan,"   the "Strong Armenia" party board member concluded.