Paqradounian: Murr Allies Are Not Ours!

Member of Change and Reform parliamentary bloc Agope Paqradounian said on Tuesday that the Tashnaq Central Committee decided to nominate only one partisan for the forthcoming parliamentary elections in all Lebanon, while other Armenian candidates would be from other parties. Speaking to Al-Manar, Paqradounian noted that the names of the candidates running for the Armenian seats in the upcoming elections would be revealed during the few coming days. He noted that some were urging the Armenians to stay out of the electoral battles in the Metn and Beirut in exchange for a few parliamentary seats. However, Pakradounian said, "if we wanted to change our political position, we would have done so a long time ago. Our objective is to revive the Armenian parliamentary bloc."

He said 85% of Armenians would vote for Tashnaq in Beirut, 91% in the Metn and 94% in Zahle. He said the party could "recruit around 9,500 voters in the Metn under normal circumstances," and anticipated Armenian participation in the upcoming elections would be much higher than in preceding ones. "We will make it a surprise," he said.

Paqradounian stressed that the alliance with MP Michel Murr does not yield necessarily for the alliance with Murr's own allies. He, meanwhile, announced that the Tashnaq party has held several meetings with the Phalange party but emphasized that no agreement has been reached yet. He denied any divisions in the Tashnaq party and said such rumors indicated the "ignorance of the one saying it, because he does not know the history of our party." There is "talk that I want to take the party to the opposition, and that the secretary general of Tashnaq wants to ally with Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri, which is untrue," he added.