Armenia needs teamwork to resolve its crisis - acting prime minister
YEREVAN. April 27 (Interfax) - The current political crisis in Armenia requires a configuration of political forces capable of resolving it, Acting Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan said.
"There really is a crisis, problems have piled up, and we must strictly choose which forces or an alliance of which forces could lead our country into a better future," Karapetyan told Armenia's Shant television channel on Friday.
"We should not be choosing a personality, we should choose a program, a team, we should be able to listen to one another and be patient. We are not hiding that we have our share of guilt, possibly a very big one, for this atmosphere of intolerance that exists today, for the long-running social problems, but we must get out of this situation, we must talk to one another, accept mistakes. Nothing should be monopolized. This will lead to no good," Karapetyan said.
He praised the consolidated effort of the authorities. "I think that parties, too, are working in a consolidated fashion," he said.
By saying that this is the sole agenda the protest movement leader Nikol Pashinyan is monopolizing the process, the acting prime minister said.
"We must form the political culture: listen to one another. There is the platform where the premier must present his program. I think Mr. Pashinyan does have a development program for our country. We are not choosing someone nice, we are taking an idea. And I am not ruling out that all those of our citizens who are discontent with today's politics want him to become prime minister, but not everyone might want that. So we say that all these matters are regulated by the constitution. Bring your program to parliament, and if you have these votes, get them and become prime minister. But monopolizing and saying 'only I can be the premier, there are no other candidates' and dictating your own agenda - I don't think this is right. I don't think that is a society we want to build," Karapetyan said.