Epress.am News from Armenia
Nikol Pashinyan, the chief editor of local daily Haykakan Jamanak (“Armenian Times”) and outspoken opposition activist released from prison just two days prior, paid a visit to the park with Martiros Saryan’s statue in central Yerevan on the evening of May 29.
HIs supporters greeted him with chants of “Nikol! Nikol!”, opening a bottle of champagne and releasing doves into the air for the occasion.
Addressing the crowd, Pashinyan welcomed them and said that there’s no alternative other than the victory of citizens of the Republic of Armenia. Also making speeches were Armenian National Congress representatives Levon Zurabyan, Aram Manukyan, Gagik Jhangiryan, Zoya Tadevosyan, Vardan Grigoryan, Mikael Hayrapetyan and Sargis Kloyan (also spelled Qloyan), father of Gor Kloyan, one of the 10 who died during the events of Mar. 1–2, 2008, when law enforcement officials, called in to disperse mass protests following a disputed election, used “excessive force and violence” which left 10 people dead and many more wounded.
Manukyan said they had already celebrated “150 times” for Pashinyan’s release, then continued to say that “they” (referring to the authorities and presumably the Sargsyan administration) are “so stupid” that “they didn’t realize they can’t destroy our leaders. They tried to break a struggle’s entire people. They know neither history nor reality, nor psychology — they can’t know. They’re not well-read people; they don’t know what is the Armenian people, what the struggle of the Armenian people is. And they made a grave mistake.”
In the words of another HAK representative, Gagik Jhangiryan, “political prisoners are free” due to the people’s struggle.
“But it would be ridiculous if all of our work, our entire movement, ended only with releasing our friends, our boys,” he said, adding that without releasing “our friends” from prison, HAK, “our people, our movement,” couldn’t move forward.
Levon Zurabyan recalled a conversation he and a group of people had with Pashinyan in 2006.
“Nikol said, ‘But do you know what that means? It means that we have to be ready for all sorts of deprivations. That means prison, imprisonment, deprivations for our families.’
“To tell the truth, being a diplomat, in my mind I asked, wait a minute now, Nikol, since you’re asking this question, are you prepared to be the first to do this?
“I didn’t ask that question — Nikol gave the answer during these three years. Nikol showed that for freedom, justice, releasing this country from these kleptocrats, he is ready for everything,” said Zurabyan, who then informed their supporters that Pashinyan will MC the opposition rally on May 31.