MP Pakradounian talks about Tasnaq's alliance with Free Patriotic Movement

Tasnaq is not the only Armenian party. However, I believe it is the most important one on the Lebanese political scene.

MP Hagop Pakradounian strikes me as a different type of politician.

“Our alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement in the upcoming elections is ultimate and we don't stab our ally in the back.Today thanks to Aoun's wisdom and to the Understanding with Hizbullah, Christians came out victorious and gained the title of ‘resistor'” [Naharnet]

This is how MP Pakradounian explained the alliance with the Free Patriotic Movement back in 2007. For more please check WSN.

We are allies of FPM and the story goes back to 2000 when we failed in Beirut.

At that time, there were two lists. We were on the list of Dr. Salim al Hoss. The late Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri headed the other list. In 2000, we had problems with Rafiq Hariri. The main problem was that we demanded to keep our independence with regard to political decisions. From the 1950s until 2000 we had the Armenian parliamentary block, where the Tashnag Party had one member. The others were either independents or members of the other Armenian political parties or close to them. The Armenian parliamentary block has never been an attached block. It was independent. Rafiq Hariri said that we didn't need an Armenian parliamentary block. This was the main issue.

What we meant by this block is not the name Armenian, but just a block of Lebanese Armenians who can make their own decisions. Our political position originated in 1943 and remains that of a moderate position. We believe in dialog and refuse to use weapons to solve our differences.

When the civil war started in 1975, we adopted the policy of positive neutrality. First, we said that we refused to take part in the war. Secondly, we refused to kill or to be killed and thirdly, we believed that the problems in Lebanon could only be solved through moderation and dialog. In a situation where the logic of the war dominates, no one hears the dialog. And we had 15 years of war, massacres, destruction and refugees. Then, at the Taef we sat for dialog and to reach a new agreement.

All the other communities respect this moderate position. In the Taef Agreement, the Armenian community was recognized to be among the 7 main communities in Lebanon. There are 18 communities here. This means that a government cannot be formed without a representative of the Armenians.

Coming back to the elections, when we failed to reach an agreement with Rafiq Hariri we lost the elections, despite the fact that we got 85% of the Armenian vote. However, due to the electoral law we failed and other Armenians who were with Hariri's bloc were elected but they did not have Armenian representation. At that time we tried to make the Lebanese understand that something is wrong with the electoral law – that non-Christians decide the Christian representation.

Lebanon is a mosaic of communities in spite of the numbers. There are less Christians than Muslims, but everything is 50-50. Without a just and fair representation, the communities wouldn't feel comfortable in this culture. Not everyone understood our point of view back then. In 2005 before the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, we tried to reach an agreement and in fact we succeeded in reaching a formal understanding. However, after Hariri was assassinated, his son Sheikh Saad for his own reasons and perhaps under the pressure of his father's martyrdom could not get the message and could not understand the situation and we felt that were going to lose in Beirut too because we could not ally with Saad Hariri.

We boycotted the elections in Beirut. It was meaningless to take part in an election that you know a priori you cannot win.

Just before we established a link with General Aoun, he suddenly declared in Paris that if he were to form any list in Mount Lebanon he would not take any Armenians except from the Tashnag Party. This is because the Tashnag represents the majority of the Armenian community in Mount Lebanon. Afterwards, we allied during the elections here and in Bekaa, where we won par excellence. When they refused our participation in the new government we became the opposition and it was the first time that an Armenian MP placed a no-confidence vote for the government. It was the first time in our history. This is why we are with General Aoun.

But the bloc that is formed by General Aoun, the Reform bloc, is not a bloc of General Aoun himself. Decisions taken in this bloc are not decisions made by General Aoun alone. On any subject, if we or somebody else is against it and we don't agree then it will be the decision of General Aoun and he declares it in his name, or in the name of FPM. Regarding things that we are in agreement, it will come out as a decision of the bloc.