Epress.am News from Armenia
Ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) deputy chair Razmik Zohrabyan accepts a hunger strike as a form of struggle, but doesn’t accept it as the main method of struggle, he said this himself while speaking to journalists in Yerevan today.
“I myself announced hunger strikes in prison during the Soviet years; I demanded an independent Armenia, freedoms, human rights. But that had a term. Thank God, Raffi got out [of his hunger strike] 15 days later; otherwise, he was saying when God says so. I don’t know if He spoke or not,” said Zohrabyan, referring to Heritage Party leader Raffi Hovannisian’s much publicized hunger strike, which ended on Mar. 30.
Zohrabyan noted that everyone has his methods of struggle. “The Heritage Party likewise has its methods: HAK [the Armenian National Congress], its; but it’s important that there not be clashes between the opposition and the ruling authorities.”
According to the MP, there’s competition among Armenia’s opposition today and it’s not obligatory that the opposition only compete with the authorities. Within this context, he considered HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrossian’s criticism toward Raffi Hovannisian to be strict.
The authorities, said Zohrabyan, take into consideration the concerns of opposition forces.
“I’m not saying that we don’t consider those who protest; we implement reforms, improvements, we’re not a stone regime, we’re not [Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi,” he said.