GAGIK TSARUKYAN “OUR ENTREPRENEURS MUST BE GIVEN AN OPPORTUNITY”
12/20/2008
The interview of PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan to "Azatamtutyun" daily
-Mr. Tsarukyan there has been much talking recently that soon the head of the government will be replaced and as a future prime-minister your name is also revolved in the candidate list.
- I have been always saying and now I say that once more, I established a political party not for holding a post but for the future of my country. I have inputted everything for the best future of my republic. And I repeat once more that I haven’t established the party for business sources or for holding a post and these are not just simple words. The most important is to be concerned about people.
- Does Tigran Sargsyan as a prime-minister care about people and, generally speaking, will the government be able to confront the world financial crisis?
-Today the prime-minister must carry out serious steps and people must see those steps. Speaking about Tigran Sargsyan, not that much time has passed since he holds this post and he must prove and show by his hard work it is better than the work of previous prime-minister because people really need that. Now, speaking about crisis, we have convened a faction session this morning where we discussed the consequences of world financial crisis. We think that today entrepreneurs must be given an opportunity, in order not to do job destruction, which will of course lead to unemployment. Therefore privileges must be given. Besides we have announced that all other issues must be dampened in conditions of world financial crisis and think only of one important issue – assist the entrepreneurs. That is why our faction is against the represented tax portfolio, because the opposite must be done, that is to facilitate nowadays situation in which our people are.
Today the largest enterprises all over the world start closing, huge job destruction is threatened, but in Armenia the first wave of that crisis seemed a little facilitated just because our banking system wasn’t working good enough and each person promoted his own business. Unfortunately the second wave can’t be avoided; it will make itself felt and already does. Such variation of prices is in fact a very serious problem and as it is predicted, we are going to have such situation until the end of 2009.
- Are you aware if there are any certain projects government has?
- Yes, there are different plans and projects, we also represent our projects and show our assistance, although I can’t say whether these projects will be accepted or not. However I have assigned everyone in the whole faction to suggest their own projects.
- There has been actively talking about the probability of NA special elections.
-In nowadays situation each of us must carry out such work in order not to let any concussion disturb the country situation and concentrate our efforts on coming out of this situation of crisis. The most important thing that must be done is hard work and work places that must be kept, because any kind of concussion might destroy our country, therefore there mustn’t be such problems.
Mr. Tsarukyan, what do you think about Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe monitoring commission preliminary inference?
- I think that Armenia carried out all the commitments, but as the judicial proceedings haven’t ended yet, it is very early to talk about that. Nobody knows, how will the judicial proceeding end.
- But the threat to debar Armenia from voting is very close to reality.
- Nobody can debar Armenia from voting until the judicial proceeding ends. And what does political prisoner mean, has anyone been jailed as a political prisoner? Therefore we must wait until the judicial proceeding ends, only then we can talk about it.
- Mr. Tsarukyan, how would you comment the condition in which “Bjni” factory is? Will you participate in the auction?
- I have been Khachik Sukiasyan’s friend and companion, I will never participate nor advise anyone to participate in that auction. Speaking about documentation problem, I must say that the director and chief accountant are to blame; they receive their salary for handling the documentation in order.
- As this is a meeting of the end of the year, how would you evaluate your faction’s activity and generally the year of 2008 for Armenia?
- I wish it will be the way I see it. My wish is to see my country stable; I would evaluate the activity of faction as satisfied. This year was strained for Armenia, the March first incidents were very deplorable and those 10 victims regardless of which political party they belonged to, opposition or no, had a very sad result. Speaking about crisis I would say that it was a result of past 10-15 years exaggeration, as there weren’t enough resources and there wasn’t enough money in Armenia, as it has been mentioned. And today time is needed to restore everything.
- I have been always saying and now I say that once more, I established a political party not for holding a post but for the future of my country. I have inputted everything for the best future of my republic. And I repeat once more that I haven’t established the party for business sources or for holding a post and these are not just simple words. The most important is to be concerned about people.
- Does Tigran Sargsyan as a prime-minister care about people and, generally speaking, will the government be able to confront the world financial crisis?
-Today the prime-minister must carry out serious steps and people must see those steps. Speaking about Tigran Sargsyan, not that much time has passed since he holds this post and he must prove and show by his hard work it is better than the work of previous prime-minister because people really need that. Now, speaking about crisis, we have convened a faction session this morning where we discussed the consequences of world financial crisis. We think that today entrepreneurs must be given an opportunity, in order not to do job destruction, which will of course lead to unemployment. Therefore privileges must be given. Besides we have announced that all other issues must be dampened in conditions of world financial crisis and think only of one important issue – assist the entrepreneurs. That is why our faction is against the represented tax portfolio, because the opposite must be done, that is to facilitate nowadays situation in which our people are.
Today the largest enterprises all over the world start closing, huge job destruction is threatened, but in Armenia the first wave of that crisis seemed a little facilitated just because our banking system wasn’t working good enough and each person promoted his own business. Unfortunately the second wave can’t be avoided; it will make itself felt and already does. Such variation of prices is in fact a very serious problem and as it is predicted, we are going to have such situation until the end of 2009.
- Are you aware if there are any certain projects government has?
- Yes, there are different plans and projects, we also represent our projects and show our assistance, although I can’t say whether these projects will be accepted or not. However I have assigned everyone in the whole faction to suggest their own projects.
- There has been actively talking about the probability of NA special elections.
-In nowadays situation each of us must carry out such work in order not to let any concussion disturb the country situation and concentrate our efforts on coming out of this situation of crisis. The most important thing that must be done is hard work and work places that must be kept, because any kind of concussion might destroy our country, therefore there mustn’t be such problems.
Mr. Tsarukyan, what do you think about Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe monitoring commission preliminary inference?
- I think that Armenia carried out all the commitments, but as the judicial proceedings haven’t ended yet, it is very early to talk about that. Nobody knows, how will the judicial proceeding end.
- But the threat to debar Armenia from voting is very close to reality.
- Nobody can debar Armenia from voting until the judicial proceeding ends. And what does political prisoner mean, has anyone been jailed as a political prisoner? Therefore we must wait until the judicial proceeding ends, only then we can talk about it.
- Mr. Tsarukyan, how would you comment the condition in which “Bjni” factory is? Will you participate in the auction?
- I have been Khachik Sukiasyan’s friend and companion, I will never participate nor advise anyone to participate in that auction. Speaking about documentation problem, I must say that the director and chief accountant are to blame; they receive their salary for handling the documentation in order.
- As this is a meeting of the end of the year, how would you evaluate your faction’s activity and generally the year of 2008 for Armenia?
- I wish it will be the way I see it. My wish is to see my country stable; I would evaluate the activity of faction as satisfied. This year was strained for Armenia, the March first incidents were very deplorable and those 10 victims regardless of which political party they belonged to, opposition or no, had a very sad result. Speaking about crisis I would say that it was a result of past 10-15 years exaggeration, as there weren’t enough resources and there wasn’t enough money in Armenia, as it has been mentioned. And today time is needed to restore everything.