One Armenia, a recently formed political force proclaiming itself as a centrist party, on Saturday conducted its founding congress in Yerevan.
A keynote speaker of the the event, attended by opposition MPs from the Prosperous Armenia party (PAP), a former lawmaker of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Armen Ashotyan, and other guests, one of the founding members, Arthur Ghazinyan, introduced their mission and vision. He said that they came up with the idea “driven by the interest to assist in the accomplishment of the political system in Armenia” and “contribute to the formation of a new political culture and state-oriented thinking.”
“The Third Republic of Armenia has
entered into one of its most important and most crucial eras, as the
developments which have taken place – and are still taking place – in
our country now have the potential to change the turn of events. We can
opt for having a powerful state, statehood, government and national
institutions, reinforcing and imparting viability to the roots of
national identity, or else choose another track to eventually see
whether the Republic of Armenia, as a sovereign, legal, democratic and
social state, will be able to resist challenges at all. And the
challenges keep forcing their way ahead – both internally and
externally, with rather complicated regional and geopolitical processes
going on around Armenia,” he said.
Ghazinyan warned against
capitalizing on the former authorities’ failures by permanently
criticizing them for kind of difficulties in Armenia. “It is not
cemented and strengthened by future-oriented constructive policies … The
‘anti-’ ideologies in Armenia normally attract quite a great number of
supporters as opposed to the ‘pro-’ ideologies. So we have tried to
shape the kind of policies that will allow only the successful,
acclaimed and respectable individuals to engage in politics,” he noted.
Ghazinyan, who also heads the Yerevan State University’s Center of European Studies, also voiced the progressive centrist political force’s strong opposition to ideological polarization, radicalism and extremism and conflicting forms of a political campaign. Instead, he promised to act in support of ideological restraint, and a collaborative and consensual political culture.