- Yes, I am sure that with these Parliamentary elections in Georgia, there was a turn in the thinking and political behavior. Once we have already witnessed Saakashvili to hardly retain the power, but the second time he did not fight for power by dishonest methods. Despite this, I would speak of the future policy of Ivanishvili’s government, with reservations. Still there are some questions left open: won’t a corruption pyramid be re-established and won’t the people with the criminal record return to Georgia? However, today Georgia has certainly set a positive example in the region: in the end, undemocratic government, which came to power through democratic elections, is better than the democratic government which came to power through dictatorial methods. Because in this case it will automatically cease to be democratic any more. There will be a real political struggle in Georgia, and what we finally have in the region is not a clash between families (as in Azerbaijan) or clans (as in Armenia), but rather a clash between political parties, political platforms, and political considerations.

 

  

- It seems to me that Georgia is a privileged country in the region, where economic, human resources and Christian traditions are successfully combined. I think that this last fact it is not due religious, but rather civilization values, and due to these values the country will very easily integrate into the European Union, and it is easy for Georgia to negotiate with other developed countries. Also, if the Russian priority is the only possible way of the formation and development of Armenia for us, which, in my opinion, is quite debatable, the Georgians have never had a political myth of the kind. They have always considered the idea of their own independence a priority, of course, in the context of their integration into more developed structures (NATO, the EU and others).

 

Thanks to these conditions Georgians have first ensured stability in the country, formed a civil society on its basis, which later was seen to be ready to make a choice of its own.

 

Armenia has no stable life, and this makes it difficult for us to hold democratic elections. We have, in fact, never had a chance to choose, we always choose the worst possible of all the bad options. Do I think a similar turn of events possible in Armenia? In my opinion, in Armenia the power cannot move into the opposition through elections, because at the moment Armenia has no active opposition. The parties are struggling to be proclaimed oppositional. Even if now the Republican Party announced that it would resign without any elections and hand the power over to, for example, the Prosperous Armenia Party, I would not consider it a democratic choice.

Ivanishvili’s emergence has become a serious momentum for our oligarchs, as we also have some, who would not mind sharing presidential powers. However, in this case, the Georgian oligarch, in contrast to our oligarchs, was independent. He was not under the control of the President or any other superpower, and it would have been impossible to put him into a difficult economic situation. This is why I would not equate the upcoming elections in Armenia with the elections in Georgia.

 

 

- In ideological terms I stand for the parliamentary form of government, because there is possibility for consensus there. But I believe that in the transition period the presidential form of government can also contribute significantly to the making of Armenia, as we are accustomed to individual decisions. If the president suddenly takes a single-handed decision on the correct organization of the society, it will be a good preparatory step for the adoption of parliamentary democracy. I think that Georgia has matured enough to transition from the presidential to the parliamentary form of government, and if a complete culture of parliamentary government develops there, it will be a vivid sign of the political maturity of Georgia. We are not ready for such developments yet.

 

 

- According to the statistics we have received, the Armenian community in Georgia voted for Saakashvili. It is noteworthy that the Armenians in Syria support the incumbent government - Assad. The choice of the Armenian population is due to the fact that Armenians are a conservative community. They assess the situation, and if the conditions of their current lives under the incumbent government are more or less comfortable, any change can be viewed as negative and even dangerous. They want safety and security for themselves in the country they live in and it is in accordance with this logic that they choose to avoid turnabouts or major changes.