Hunger Strike Activist Blames Armenia’s Culture Minister for Lying

RA Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan lied when she said that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan asked her to pass on a message to writer-publicist Vahram Tatikkyan to stop the hunger strike and sit-in against the building of a dolphinarium (aquarium) at the Komitas Pantheon. Tatikyan said this himself at a press conference in Yerevan today.

“After a 37-hour hunger strike, I informed Writers’ Union [of Armenia] President Levon Ananyan about my hunger strike and he promised he would tell RA President Serzh Sargsyan. Then, in the evening, RA Minister of Culture Hasmik Poghosyan came to visit me, she said that Serzh Sargsyan had said to me to stop my hunger strike,” explained Tatikyan, “Then Hasmik Poghosyan said to the press that Serzh Sargsyan made no such request to her and supposedly I’m lying.”

During the entire press conference, Tatikyan was saying, on one hand, that his demands have been met, which is why he eventually stopped his hunger strike; on the other hand, that he is not satisfied and that they tricked him, and thus, he is preparing to continue his fight and succeed in the aquarium being demolished.

“I even agreed to a compromise, since the youth, being active on Facebook, didn’t come out in real life, [and] no environmental organization supported me,” he said.  

In response to an observation by Epress.am that the committee to save Armenia’s Teghut forest had announced its support to Tatikyan, that well-known environmental activist Mariam Sukhudyan had personally come to visit him a few times during his hunger strike, and that Bicycle+ NGO was planning on organizing a bike tour in support, Tatikyan said: 

“All the work can’t be left to one girl, and as for the bike tour, they were supposed to come, do their usual protest and come, so,” he said.

Recall that the official statement by the RA Ministry of Culture stated that building a dolphinarium in Komitas Park will disrupt neither the ecological nor substantial significance of the park. The culture ministry made no mention of Tatikyan’s hunger strike.