What are the parties ready to do for national minorities?
Towards the upcoming parliamentary elections, many political forces and individuals have not yet decided whether they will take part in it or not. In this respect, the MPs representing the national minorities are not an exception, although their decision in this case is of little significance. They, as it is known, are elected by quotas for national minorities, exclusively by the pre-election lists of the ruling forces. To inquire whether they were offered by the authorities to be included in their pre-electoral list, Panorama.am correspondent talked to the foreign MPs of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.
Arsen Mikhaylov, a member of the RPA faction, representing the Assyrian community, said he didn’t mind being nominated as an MP candidate again.
"The Assyrian community in Armenia has had a meeting recently and decided to support the current authorities. Last Sunday the session of the Assyrian "Atur" Union Board was held, during which an offer was made to defend my candidacy for the upcoming elections. And if the Assyrian community supports me, I don’t mind it. We need to wait and see if the ruling party will confirm my candidacy, " he said.
Arsen Mikhailov stressed that the Assyrian community in Armenia has been and is pro-government.
"We will support the ruling authorities. At the moment "Civil Contract" is the ruling party, so we should support that party. We will go with the one who is in power. We have problems, and, consequently, we cannot be in the opposition, "Mikhailov said.
Yezidi MP Rustam Makhmudyan told us that by the end of this week, by Monday, it will be clear whether he will take part in the upcoming elections or not.
"There are several general discussions, let me just not tell you anything for the moment. I have discussions both in the Yezidi community and in the party. I have met with representatives of our community abroad, and I was urged to participate in the upcoming elections. It mainly depends on the political force which will make the proposal. I think certain clarifications will be made in the upcoming days, but the Yezidi community unequivocally supports my candidacy,"said Rustam Makhmudyan.
Tatiana Mikaelyan, the Russian MP of the Tsarukyan faction of the National Assembly, also mentioned that whether she will stand in the elections or not would be decided within the next one or two days.
"Let's see, we have not decided yet. I haven’t received any offers yet, I'm waiting for what they will say, but I would like to run for it, " she said.
MP Knyaz Hasanov, who represents the Kurdish community, informed that he had recently applied to the Civil Contract Party to include him in the list, but he has not received an answer yet.
"Perhaps they inform me one of these days. As a minority, we are elected by quota and always support the ruling party. We solve all our problems with the help of the government and the authorities. Personally I would like to run for the elections, I have such a wish," he said.