Opposition to ‘Summarize’ End of Serzh Sargsyan’s Third Term at Rally

“If the Apr. 8 rally has as many people as today’s [press] conference, we will win.” With these words, Armenian National Congress (HAK) coordinator Levon Zurabyan began today’s press conference in Yerevan.

According to him, the upcoming HAK rally is unique in that it coincides with the end of the third year of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s term in office: “Therefore, it can be considered a unique opportunity of a summary of those years.”

“In the three key areas for Armenian statehood and the people — in terms of the country’s socioeconomic development, strengthening foreign policy positions, [and] democratic freedoms in the country —, Serzh Sargsyan’s rule can simply be described as catastrophic,” he said. In particular, Zurabyan noted that Armenia, in the socioeconomic arena, is among those rare countries that in three years has recorded a 5% decline of the GDP. “In the world on average there’s been growth.”

Once again, Zurabyan touched upon the “Football Diplomacy” initiated by Serzh Sargsyan, describing it as “lost.”

“But we’ve also had more heavy losses on the Karabakh front. As a result of his diplomacy, the Council of Europe approved resolution no. 1614 on Jul. 24, 2008; [then there were] the OSCE’s 2009 Athens and 2010 Astana decisions; the resolution approved by the European Parliament on May 20, 2010; the Mar. 24, 2011 report ‘OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs’ Field Assessment Mission to the Occupied Territories of Azerbaijan Surrounding Nagorno-Karabakh’ — all these documents prove that we’re simply losing in the Karabakh and diplomacy front, since unfavorable expressions gradually find a place in these documents, which essentially confirm Azerbaijan’s position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and predetermine the status of Karabakh within Azerbaijan,” he said.

The opposition activist also noted that political prisoners continue to remain in prison. “Releasing one, two, three people has no significance whatsoever. Either there are or there aren’t political prisoners in the country,” he said, referring to the handful of HAK loyalists imprisoned following the 2008 disputed presidential elections. The opposition considers these men political prisoners, while members of the international community, despite agreeing that these men are imprisoned for their political views, have refrained from using the term “political prisoners.”

Summarizing his remarks today, Zurabyan said, “We are dealing with an utterly failed government, which has been unable to given anything to its own people in any arena and has no justification for continuing its term in office.”