Epress.am News from Armenia
As is common at Armenian National Congress (HAK) rallies, the last person to make a speech was first president of the Republic of Armenia, HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrossian.
He noted that it should’ve been obvious to everyone from the beginning that yesterday’s event wasn’t so much a rally as a demonstration; thus, lengthy speeches are unnecessary. According to him, also obvious is the reason for the demo — the Council of Europe’s Forum for the Future of Democracy — which is currently underway in Yerevan.
“And now let’s understand, by demonstrating, what do we want to show? Only the following:
“First. In spite of efforts by the international community, Armenia’s (governing) authorities continue to keep more than a dozen political prisoners in dungeons, do not take any steps in uncovering the deaths of March 1 [2008], and in no way do they intend to resign from the unlawful practice of restricting freedom of speech and assembly.
“Second. Armenia’s authorities thus have not fulfilled the requirements of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe [PACE] Resolution no. 1677, thus expressing their obvious contempt toward this authoritative organization.
“Third. PACE, in turn, has not been consistent and principled in the issue of monitoring the implementation process of the resolution in question, and with its passivity, has actually encouraged the criminal behavior of Armenia’s authorities.
“Fourth. The mild or gentle policy adopted by international organizations, whose nature is the aspiration to allure Armenia’s government into the framework of reforms, in reality, has yielded the opposite result. Experience shows that the latter display a disposition to make positive steps only in the case of threat of sanctions.
“And fifth, which is the most important, the purpose of our event today is to show forum participants that the Armenian people are full of determination: to fight till the end for restoring rights that have been violated, using all lawful means and the opportunities provided by international organizations to achieve that,” he said.
The opposition leader then told demonstrators that on Oct. 19, he met with PACE Monitoring Committee co-rapporteur John Prescott, to whom he passed on the aforementioned precepts, more or less.
“Also planned is my meeting with Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland, who will be participating in the closing session of the Yerevan forum. I don’t know what consequences these meetings and generally our events today will have; however, it feels like the international community’s patience is waning. Noting at the Sept. 17 rally that the remission (pardon) granted to Armenia’s authorities is expiring, I meant this very fact. The recent alarming news completely confirms this premonition. In the scandalous findings in Russia, the United States of America, Malaysia [and] Australia, Armenia is presented as a center for money laundering, narcotics business, trafficking, illegal arms trade and other international crimes, and our country’s authorities as figures involved in these grave crimes.
“The time of retribution, thus, approaches day by day. Though painfully this takes place at the expense of the honor and prestige of Armenia and the Armenian people, not to mention the political losses threatening our country, which inevitably will follow all this. By no means would we want Armenia’s revival to happen at such a high price,” he said.