Why Ruling Party MP Doesn’t Plan on Visiting Raffi Hovannisian

Galust Sahakyan, head of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) parliamentary faction, speaking to journalists in Yerevan today about Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian’s current hunger strike, said he always pictured Hovannisian in a different role.

Sahakyan noted that he’s not going to visit Hovannisian because such an action might be misinterpreted and become cause for “sensation,” but the HHK deputy doesn’t want the Heritage Party leader’s “noble aspiration to be branded differently.”

As previously reported, Hovannisian has been staging his round-the-clock hunger strike in Liberty Square since Mar. 15. Many politicians, public figures and average citizens have come to visit him, including People’s Party of Armenia leader Stepan Demirchyan, Republic party leader Aram Sargsyan, Sardarapat Movement member Jirair Sefilian, MP and former National Assembly spokesperson Tigran Torosyan, New Times party leader Aram Karapetyan, People’s Party leader Tigran Karapetyan, Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) MP Lilit Galstyan, human rights activist Artur Sakunts, fellow Heritage Party members and a number of Armenian National Congress activists.