Forget about Revolution in Armenia, Says Former HAK Member

Former member of the Armenian National Congress (HAK), creator of the group Alliance of Online Liberals (also known as “3A”) Karapet Rubinyan, meeting with journalists in Yerevan today, said his group is not in talks with any political parties or entities.

“Those meetings in which I’m participating I participate in as Karapet Rubinyan,” he said.

“I’ve met with [Heritage Party leader] Raffi Hovannisian and other members of the Heritage Party; once I drank with the Dashnaks [members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation]; nearly every day I’m in heated debates with my friends from the [Armenian National] Congress,” he said, noting that these meetings haven’t led to results in political terms.

Asked by Epress.am what mechanisms he sees in changes being made, Rubinyan said, “Through the course set by the [Armenian National] Congress, to put it bluntly, we have to forget about revolution because the only chance [for revolution] was established at the start of the year, the outside factors, the extremely bad situation inside [the country], the failure of the current authorities — I had such an impression, it was enough that the [Armenian National] Congress, as the pivotal and most capable opposition force, gather around it the other opposition forces, bring them out onto the street, resolutely stay a few days and it [i.e. revolution] would happen. But, unfortunately, we lost that chance.”

According to the activist, this is no longer possible.

“A new political force, new political figures, if they even try to come and occupy that radical arena liberated by the [Armenian National] Congress, they won’t succeed in the foreseeable future. The only permanent vector here remains the aggravated social situation. I estimate that it’s not possible to create such a strong movement in the near future,” he said.