Vahan Hovhannisyan
Member of the Bureau of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun)
Background Information
1. Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) – ARF (D)
2. The party was founded in 1890. It has members all over the world. There are more than 6000 active
members of the party in Armenia , besides the women's organizations and youth unions. The party is represented
in all the regions and towns, in most communities of the country.
3. The party is represented in the power structures - 12 Deputies in the Parliament of the country, three
Ministers in the government. The party also has two Governors, five Deputy Ministers and two Deputy Governors.
Answers
1. The strategic direction of the development pursued by the Republic of Armenia naturally envisions
maximum integration into European structures of various nature and levels. Some countries take this route
striving at the solution of their problems already being members of these European structures. Armenia
approaches these issues a little differently and is striving to solve its problems in order to comply
with the European standards and find itself in elite clubs. Some countries think that the accession to
NATO and European Union will automatically solve their social, economic and territorial problems. Armenia
does not formulate its problems like that.
We have different approaches to EU and NATO membership. Our number one task is provision of our security
in this unsafe region, and naturally development of our cooperation with NATO is a priority for us. However,
at this stage the state does not put forward the question of joining this organization, even though such
development is not excluded, and our party considers deepening integration in the sphere of defense as
natural and indispensable. As to the European Union, we think that it is desirable for Armenia to join
it, but to take this route Armenia should seriously modernize its political and economic systems.
2. The integration policy is a stimulus for development of social relations and economy. Our party
has quite a serious attitude to the independence of our country. We consider our independence an eternal
and very serious value which cannot be a small change, in any situation in the international relations.
If a country has geopolitical issues, then it should resolve them on its own, and in this way develop
up to the level of European countries. The European structures were established gradually, step by step
through agreements between the European countries, through gradual exclusion of hostility in their interrelations,
through creation of an atmosphere of tolerance and forgiveness and the resolution of old conflicts. And
gradually these countries grew to a level at which they could unite. To put it differently, they first
resolved the problems existent among themselves and only afterwards united. Currently a different tendency
can be detected: many Eastern European countries, some neighbors of ours, in particular, aim at joining
the European structures with unresolved problems hoping that their presence in these structures will
automatically resolve their problems. Armenia’s approach is different. We prefer the route taken by the
Western European countries. It is likely that this route would be long and gradual, but a reliable one.
In addition, a question arises whether the European structures are ready to resolve our accumulated problems,
if we are not ready ourselves?
3. Introduction of European norms in the social and political relations. The grounds here are the
same as in the second question.
4. The only obstacle is Turkey’s policy regarding Armenia, and this together with the aggressive policy
of Azerbaijan poses a threat to security of our country, which in its turn impedes the development of
social, political and economic institutes of our country. Because the threat to security constantly creates
a tension in the society and directs the society’s energy to the issue of security, much less attention
is, unfortunately, paid to development of civil society.
5. Unfortunately, a so-called official perspective is not quite formulated in Armenia. In this sense
there is no finally developed national context of this concept, and due to it answers of the representatives
of different political powers can strongly vary here. But Dashnaktsutyun is a socialist party. We are
the only party among the parties in the CIS countries which is a full member of the international organization
SocIntern, which is why our conception of democracy and civil society mostly corresponds to the concepts
of our European partners at SocIntern.
6. I think that Armenia is an example of how people’s refusal to accept the foreign policy of the
first president of the RA, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, and the former party in power –Armenian National Movement-
led to the change in the government. At present the foreign policy led by the authorities of the RA mostly
corresponds to the country’s and the Armenian people’s interests. Certainly, mistakes and blunders happen,
but on the whole, this is a policy acceptable by the people, and this is one of the assurances of social
stability.
7. Geographically, we are out of Europe borders. Politically we are part of the European continent,
but we have a peripheral location, in the border region. By the way, Armenia has always been in the border
zone, and because of this Armenia’s orientation cannot be unilateral. In this sense the programs of NATO,
CIS and EU do not contradict one another, moreover, at this point these structures are collaborating
on such vital issues as fighting against terrorism, corruption, shadow economy, crime, drug and human
trafficking. There are more common elements here, and Armenia is just one of the focal points of this
collaboration. Moreover, recently ideas on civilized interactions between the East and the West, between
the Muslim and Christian worlds have repeatedly been put forward, and here too Armenia is on the borderline.
In the history of the Armenian people there has been no case of persecution of others because of religious
and race discrimination. From this viewpoint the tolerance of the Armenian society is a good example
for this cooperation. That is why our partnership with Russia and Iran does not contradict trends of
integration of our country into Europe, but on the contrary, creates an opportunity of building new bridges
among the European structures and countries, and regions not involved in this process.
8. No one can safeguard anybody’s security completely, but these integration processes can and must
considerably increase the level of security.
9. Mainly, the requirements of European structures towards our country and our society are within
interests of the society. The standards are quite serious but there are cases when some degree of flexibility
is needed. It should be taken into account that, first, we have to create a civil society and only afterwards
require observance of all standards; otherwise observance of these standards may acquire an imitational
character which is very dangerous as it only demoralizes the society. We should take into account that
we have just stepped out of the Soviet past and are not always ready to completely realize the requirements
put before us. In this sense our party negatively treats the phenomena, which arouse resistance in our
society, such as excessive attention drawn to sects or sexual minorities. Europe came to an absolute
freedom of conscience through a solid system of Christian values whereas in our countries spiritual values
were undermined by the decades of the Soviet regime. That is why our task is to first fill in the vacuum
with spiritual values understandable for and acceptable by our society and only after that to implement
the European standards in their absolute form.
January 28, 2005
