Former foreign minister of Armenia Vartan Oskanian establishes new party

Former minister of foreign affairs of Armenia, parliamentarian Vartan Oskanian has introduced a new political party – Unity – today, an initiative group says in a statement.

Reportedly, the constituent congress of the new party will take place soon. “The party has been established in a complicate period when the country has faced the need to ensure its security and serious internal changes. A new political force having a potential of unity is needed.  We seek to become the key political force in the country able to meet all the domestic and foreign challenges,” the statement reads.

The authors of the initiative say the need to create a political force emerged yet before the April war in Karabakh. Now this has become even more important, as exercising the Karabakh people’s right to self-determination and achieving the international recognition of that right is an important condition to Armenia’s security. The party will seek to find a positive solution to the issue at all platforms.

The initiative group urges a fundamental revision of Armenia’s foreign policy. The authors of the initiative believe that the country needs fundamentally new relations with the world as an independent, equal and predictable partner.

“We see a solid capacity for the development of renewed, efficient relations with Russia, EU, and USA. We see the need for development of a new regional conception of cooperation with Georgia and Iran so that the relations with these countries attain a new quality,” the statement says.

The members of the initiative group call for changing of the principles of cooperation with the diaspora.

“The new party will introduce its programs and approaches to all the key issues. Out task is to bring back the power to the people. However, we are not going to engage in populism and divide the power and the opposition into ‘the white’ and ‘the black.’ We are ready to cooperate with all the political forces and circles that seek fundamental changes and share our views,” the statement reads.

The members of the initiative group are as follows: MP Vartan Oskanian, Director of the Politeconomy Research Institute Andranik Tevanyan, MP Elinar Vardanyan, MP Stepan Margaryan, MP Vahe Hovhannisyan, political analyst Yervand Bozoyan, Commander of the Arabo Brigade Manvel Yeghiazaryan, political analyst Gegham Nazaryan, psychologist Vahan Guyumchyan, Ambassador Ruben Karapetyan, film director Vahe Hakhverdyan, political analyst Nina Margaryan, businessman Vardan Tovmasyan, and orientalist Artak Bshtikyan.

Last year, Oskanian left the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) after Gagik Tsarukyan, PAP Leader, one of the Armenian tycoons, left the party and retired from politics. Tsarukyan announced his decision to leave the political field following a conflict with President Serzh Sargsyan. The reason was Tsarukyan’s calls for power shift in the country. It was widely rumored in local media that Robert Kocharyan, the second president of Armenia, was behind Oskanian’s project. The politician occupied the foreign minister’s post just in the period of Kocharyan’s presidency.  However, Oskanian has repeatedly disclaimed these rumors saying, at the same time, that he is not going “to put himself in a situation when he would have to disassociate himself from Robert Kocharyan.”