YEREVAN. – Armenian authorities make great efforts to ruin the joint headquarter, which will control over the upcoming parliamentary elections, ARF Dashnaktsutyun MP Artyusha Shahbazyan told Armenian News-NEWS.am.

At the same time, Shahbazyan rejected to comment on the initiative of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) member David Harutyunyan, who proposed a set of rules for the conduct of a civilized election campaign as an alternative to create joint headquarter.

To note, the preliminary idea of joint headquarter, included ruling coalition member Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), parliament opposition ARF Dashnaktsuyun, Heritage and off-parliament opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC). However, Heritage party representative withdrew the party’s agreement on Wednesday offering some conditions.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun is one of the oldest Armenian political parties. It was founded in the end of 19th century.

Following the Sovietization of Armenia in 1920, the ARF-Dashnaktsutyun was banned by the Communists and its leadership exiled. The ARF-Dashnaktsutyun officially re-emerged in Armenia after the collapse of the USSR, in 1990.

In June 2003, the party signed a coalition memorandum with the Republican Party of Armenia and Orinats Yerkir (Rule of Law). However, in 2009 ARFD left the coalition in protest against signing the protocols with Turkey. 

Party’s proportional list includes 85 candidates. Eight candidates will run for an MP seat with majority system. The party’s motto is ‘Freedom, Justice, Dashnaktsutyun.’