The Scientific-Industrial and Civic Union of Armenia, the Democratic Party of Armenia, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun issued a joint declaration, on May 13, 1996, on efforts to coordinate their activities within Armenia’s sociopolitical reality.

The joint declaration follows consultations among Armenia’s democratic opposition parties, mainly focusing on discussion of issues relating to the forthcoming Armenian presidential elections in September.

In the joint declaration, the three parties announce their readiness to form “a base of cooperation with those political forces, with the goal of unification, which give priority to a political direction stemming from national interests and which guarantees the normal development of society, at the same time, rejecting any type of extreme and criminal approach.”

The parties further state that “during the 1996 presidential elections, an anti-crisis, comprehensive program, and the candidacy of a president and a government composed of professionals that will implement such a program is of paramount importance.”

Commenting on this joint effort, Edward Harutyunyan, member of the ARF Supreme Council of Armenia, told Radio Liberty that “at this stage the cooperation is in an open forum. We have begun and continue to hold negotiations with all those forces, who really give priority to platform and who at this stage do not yet have their own presidential candidate. In the future, especially after the presidential elections, [this] force could become a close forum, by being the coalition of parties who have gathered around ideas.”

To a question about ARF’s presidential candidate, Harutyunyan replied: “We do not yet have our own candidate and having a candidate is not an aim in itself. The candidate could be a nonpartisan individual.”

ARF News
May 1996, Volume 1.3(3)