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Press Review


Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) Executive Council of Armenia representative Armen Rustamian tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that the need for a comprehensive party action platform emerged “naturally” after the party quit the governing coalition about three months ago and declared itself to be opposition.

“It took a little longer because of our contesting the municipal elections, but it was those elections that revealed that our people have no full grasp of what Dashnaktsutyun’s priorities are from now on.”

“Iravunk de-facto” interviews another senior Dashnaktsutyun figure.

The party’s chief foreign policy spokesman Giro Manoyan says that the only reason for the cancellation of the Dashnaktsutyun protest planned in front of the Foreign Ministry office on July 16 with the demand for Minister Edward Nalbandian’s resignation was the tragic crash of the Tehran-Yerevan plane the previous day.

“A day of national mourning had been declared, and we found it inappropriate to stage such a political action against the backdrop of that tragic event. But we made clear our demands for the foreign minister’s resignation through a press conference on that same day,” said Manoyan.

“We are not saying that the Armenian authorities have agreed to the Madrid principles. We suggest they should not agree to this version of settlement. Had the president agreed to that, we would have approached the matter from a different angle.”

“Aravot” editorializes on one historical precedent of a voluntary withdrawal of lands gained at the cost of blood and draws parallels with the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

“At the turn of last century such a thing happened when the Soviet Union, without firing a single shot, gave up to its opponent in the Cold War nearly half of Europe that had been gained at the cost of blood of millions of people, including our compatriots. A parallel [with Nagorno-Karabakh] is appropriate at least from one aspect – what happened to the USSR indicates that only weakening and collapsing states cede land. The state collapses when its citizens do not trust, but hate their state leaders and institutions and when the state falls, territorial concessions are almost inevitable.”

Deputy parliament speaker Samvel Nikoyan, who heads the ad hoc parliamentary commission conducting a probe into last year’s post-election unrest, tells “Hayk” that by not contributing to the commission with evidence the opposition also fails to help in the cause of revealing the organizers and executors of the March 1, 2008 violence.

“I strongly doubt that the opposition wants this revelation. If they do want that to happen, let them make concrete steps,” Nikoyan suggests.

Fugitive parliament member and businessman Khachatur Sukiasian’s lawyer tells “Hraparak” that his client “is not bound” by the July 31 deadline set by the recent amnesty law for oppositionists in hiding to turn themselves in to authorities and face trial.

“This deadline was set deliberately so that it be seen as a stipulating factor for all to surrender. But a person in hiding wanted on a criminal charge is no worse than a person facing a criminal charge in pretrial detention.”
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