Epress.am News from Armenia
At the fourth consecutive evening of a series of outdoor Q&A sessions and the seventh consecutive evening of nonstop rallies in Yerevan’s Liberty Square, the Armenian National Congress (HAK) on Thursday continued to respond to questions from journalists and members of the public, mainly about issues related to HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrossian’s presidential term.
Prior to the start of the question and answer period, HAK senior representatives responded to a resolution adopted by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Wednesday.
Recall, a key aspect of the resolution notes that “The outcome of the latest general amnesty in Armenia, the renewed impetus to investigate the 10 deaths during the March 2008 events, and the resulting start of a constructive dialogue between the opposition and ruling coalition mean that the chapter on the March 2008 events can finally be considered closed [for the Assembly].”
The first to address this topic at the Q&A was HAK foreign affairs committee representative Vladimir Karapetyan (pictured below).
“Is the chapter to March 1 actually closed? The one who closes are not different assemblies, but we, the people of Armenia. It is not the Assembly that conquered Liberty Square — we did. All our other goals we will also achieve on our own,” he said.
Levon Zurabyan, coordinator of HAK’s day-to-day affairs, continued: “The draft resolution that was put forth by the [PACE] Monitoring Committee was simply shameful. The [Armenian National] Congress condemns this statement, which had a very serious impact.”
According to Zurabyan, the resolution notes that though “the chapter to March 1 is considered to be closed, the inquiry into the 10 deaths has to continue” and a large observation mission will be sent to Armenia for the next (parliamentary) elections.
Zurabyan then mentioned that Friday’s Q&A session will be a “mini-rally” beginning at 6:30 pm as the Euro2012 Armenia-Macedonia match will begin at 8 pm on Friday in Yerevan — “since we will all be watching our team and doing everything for our team to win.”
“This is a small gesture on our part. On Saturday, which is the last day of our rally, we all have to gather here to make important decisions,” he said.
Wrapping up the Q&A session, HAK representative Nikol Pashinyan then urged all those watching the rallies on their computer screens to come to Liberty Square because “this is not a computer game.”