August 1, 2006

Heritage Holds Fourth Party Congress:
Vardan Khachatrian Elected Board Chairman

Yerevan—The Heritage Party convened today its fourth annual congress at the auditorium of the Writers’ Union of Armenia. The conference was called to discuss the party’s accomplishments—despite countless roadblocks placed by the sitting authorities against normal party operations—to draw attention to its shortfalls, and to outline future courses of action.

Heritage’s political secretary Vardan Khachatrian welcomed the capacity audience with opening remarks. He mentioned that 600 delegates from Yerevan and across Armenia were expected to take part in the congress, but that the space limitations of the hall had allowed for only 213. “Despite a series of formal requests sent to the government, the latter refused to provide us access to any of the rooms at its disposal and routinely made available for such meetings,” Khachatrian asserted. “Fear seems to have become a political category in Armenia.”

The congress opened with the singing of Armenia’s national anthem, “Mer Hairenik.” The delegates then approved the day’s agenda, and the convention’s Secretariat and its Credentials and Editorial Commissions were elected.

The first speaker was Heritage board member Anahit Bakhshian, who presented an accounting of the board’s activities since last the party convened. Bakhshian maintained that against the backdrop of domestic multi-party politics, numerous impediments and incidences of repression, and an imperfect atmosphere surrounding the political opposition in Armenia, the Heritage Party was able to find its rightful place, keep its ethical character untainted, and remain faithful to its agenda and values. In short time, the number of party members has doubled to five thousand, new regional divisions have opened, and more than five scores of public meetings have been organized. That the party exceeded the fifty percent success mark in last year’s local elections, said Bakhshian, can be attributed to its direct contact with the people—both in principle and in fact.

“Opportunists and informants have no place among us. Our goal is to turn Heritage into an arena for decent citizens, a community which will assume the mission of forming a civilized, democratic, and highly developed society,” Bakhshian said. She also noted that the party must prepare for the 2007 parliamentary elections and will support fair and transparent elections as the only legitimate path to progress.

Following the approval of the board’s report, Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman of the Heritage Party, was invited to take the floor. In a powerful keynote address, he specified the benchmarks of the party’s future, discussed the state of Armenia within and beyond its borders, and set down forthcoming measures and priorities that would keep real and relevant the party’s goals through meeting new challenges.

In Hovannisian’s view, the Heritage Party convenes its fourth congress having attained a stage of distinct organizational know-how. It has been enriched with the experience of hard work and the bitter yet enlightening lessons from our daily lives. “The party’s human potential has grown not artificially, nor by the use of financial and administrative levers, nor on the account of transparent political benevolence, but rather through inner conviction, conscience, and a noble drive,” Hovannisian stated, underscoring that our national well-being will not be served to us on a silver platter, but that it must be labored for and earned by all Armenians in our quest to strengthen the foundations of statehood.

“The ruling administration, which only operates for self-interest, must be met with common rationality, high consciousness, and readiness to sacrifice for the cause.” This, according to Heritage’s chairman, is the key for the transformation of state and society. The road chosen and traveled by, in Hovannisian’s belief, is laden with thorns, but the party cannot and will not resign its mission. In his words, the harmony between the individual and the collective, the alliance of the private and the national, the desire for freedom coupled with and actualized by an unyielding determination to fight for right will help us forge Armenia’s tomorrow, tend to its shared legacy, and fulfill its sacred national purpose.

After the keynote remarks, Hovsep Khurshudian, chairman of Heritage’s Constitutional Commission, presented its report and offered motions to amend the party’s Charter. Approved by open ballot, these changes did away with the elected post of party chairman, replacing it with a chairperson elected by the board from among its members.

At the end of the first session, the delegates made nominations for new membership in the party’s executive board. Through secret ballot, the congress elected as board members teacher and Artsakh war veteran Davit Badalian; high school principal Anahit Bakhshian; sociologist Dolores Davtian; theology professor Vardan Khachatrian; electrical engineer Gevorg Kalenchian; physics professor Rafik Hakobian; Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi Hovannisian; teacher and judo trainer Armen Martirosian; and pharmacist Garnik Sahakian.

In the convention’s second session, the 2005-2006 report by the Audit Commission was approved, and new Constitutional and Audit Commissions were elected. The Constitutional Commission comprises Hovsep Khurshudian, Arthur Harutiunian, Sargis Manukian, Armen Martirosian, and Gayane Poghosian. The Audit Commission includes Arthur Galstian, Karapet Kalenchian, Asia Hambardzumian, Mamikon Sargsian, and Armine Vardanian.

The Heritage Party congress also adopted a resolution expressing concern about unjust and undemocratic elections, which continue to reproduce the ruling clan. “As a consequence of the unreliability of the electoral system, the formation of power in Armenia is dependent on external forces and, being answerable solely to them, the incumbent authorities are reticent to conduct policies and make decisions that are in the country’s national and sovereign interests,” the resolution states. The party asserts that the accrued adverse phenomena pose an enormous threat to Armenia’s sovereignty, democratization, national security, and stable development. Hence, the regional situation today compels each of us to become “not a subject but a citizen, not a government discard who is demeaned psychologically and crushed by poverty and privation, but a proud, dignified, and spiritual human being” for whom liberty is the value supreme.

Following the congress, the newly elected executive board of the Heritage Party convened its first meeting wherein Vardan Khachatrian was elected chairman of the board upon the motion of Raffi Hovannisian.