Epress.am News from Armenia
Heritage Party founder and leader Raffi Hovannisian began his hunger strike yesterday by camping out at Liberty Square in downtown Yerevan.
“I’m neither begging nor asking nor demanding anyone to do anything for me; the demand is the people’s and it is essential that extraordinary solutions be found for this emergency situation,” he said, speaking to journalists yesterday evening.
As previously reported, Hovannisian made the surprise announcement of beginning a hunger strike during a special meeting of his Heritage Party yesterday. Speaking to Epress.am, fellow party members Armen Martirosyan and Stepan (Styopa) Safaryan had said the news was a surprise to them as well.
“In the first place, by giving power to the people, we’re providing grounds for Armenia to stand back from the denouement which we are confronted with — socioeconomic, legal and foreign,” he said.
According to the party leader, he wouldn’t want anyone to join him in the hunger strike, but he has wide-reaching support, for which he expressed his gratitude.
At around 1 am, Hovannisian wanted to put up a tent in Liberty Square; however, he was stopped by police. When those present asked based on what law is their action being prohibited, the officer present, Major Grigoryan, did not respond. This news was conveyed to Epress.am by Heritage Party member Davit Sanasaryan, who added that police actions were directed by Police Patrol Service of Armenia chief Valeriy Osipyan.
“Osipyan was quite impertinent. When [Heritage Party faction MP] Larisa Alaverdyan asked him with which law are they prohibiting putting up a tent here, Osipyan said, ‘I don’t have a desire to speak with you and I won’t show [you] a law,’ after which he turned and stood with his back to Alaverdyan,” said Sanasaryan. The party member said present at the time of this incident were all the members of the Heritage Party as well as around 40 citizens who were supporting Hovannisian.
Specifically, supporting Hovannisian at Liberty Square last night were fellow Heritage Party members, Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) MP Lilit Galstyan, People’s Party of Armenia leader Stepan Demirchyan (not to be confused with the People’s Party and its leader Tigran Karapetyan), Republic party leader Aram Sargsyan, human rights activist Artur Sakunts and a number of Armenian National Congress activists.