Immediately after the four non-coalition parliamentary factions issued there 12 point list of demands to the government last Tuesday, National Assembly Vice President Edward Sharmazanov declared that the parties never broached the most important issue of all; proposed changes to the constitution.

Sharmazanov noted that the implementation of the twelve demands was contingent on such changes.

Should Sharmazanov’s statement be seen as a hint that if the four parties do not back the constitutional changes then the government will reject their twelve points all together? It appears that the four parties do not regard Sharmazanov’s statement as such a quid pro quo.

When Hetq asked Armenian National Congress (HAK) parliamentary faction secretary Aram Manoukyan about any such linkage, he nixed any such possibility, replying: “Their bravado is boundless for them to suggest such a thing. The government knows full well that we reject having any contact or debate with them.”

The HAK MP went on to say that the opposition had officially declared that constitutional changes were a non-item and that their twelve demands would either be implemented or not.

ARF faction secretary Aghvan Vardanyan stated that he too does not see the Sharmazanov statement as a proposal for the sides to work something out.

Regarding the fact that the four non-coalition factions have no common stance regarding proposed constitutional changes, Vardanyan noted that the four had differences on other issues as well and that such disagreements were well known.

Heritage Party faction leader Ruben Hakobyan called on Sharmazanov to pay attention to the particular statements of each of the four parties regarding constitutional changes.

“Yes, we don’t have a united position. Three of the four have stated that to contemplate constitutional changes at this time would be to divert attention from pressing socio problems that aren’t linked to those changes,” Hakobyan told Hetq.

When this reporter asked Hakobyan if Sharmazanov wasn’t hinting that the 12 point list of demands would be adopted only after the adoption of the constitutional changes, the Heritage MP ridiculed any such formula.

“That’s a marketplace mentality. In any event, I don’t think the government is so primitive to say that if we [the opposition] do not accept the constitutional changes then the twelve demands will be rejected by us,” Hakobyan noted.

Prosperous Armenia MP Stepan Margaryan also didn’t see any hidden message in Sharmazanov’s statement, and confidently said that the demands were vital for the nation, and not just for the four parties that drafted them.