Galust Sahakian, the parliamentary leader of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that President Serzh Sarkisian has ordered a renewed inquiry into the March 2008 events in Yerevan because “many of their circumstances” continue to be exploited by the opposition. Sahakian says all “organizers” of those events must be questioned by investigators.
Pargev Ohanian, a former judge affiliated with the opposition, questions the authorities’ commitment to punishing those responsible for the violence, in an interview with “Hraparak.” Ohanian says that everyone knows that happened on March 1-2, 2008 and that all the country needs is a “legal verdict on that.”
Vladimir Karapetian, a senior member of the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK), assures “Zhamanak” that the Armenian authorities will not again use deadly force against opposition protesters if they face non-stop opposition demonstrations. He says “it is clear to everyone today that Serzh Sarkisian can’t solve any issue.” “Furthermore, [power] centers interested in regional stability are seeing that Armenia is losing, that the Turkish factor is becoming more powerful, that Armenian-Azerbaijani relations are becoming more unequal. We can declare today that Serzh Sarkisian has lost the West’s support,” claims Karapetian. “Today the authorities can’t resort to violence.”
“A partial satisfaction of our demands is not acceptable to us,” Levon Zurabian, another HAK representative, tells “Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun.” He says the three main HAK demands addressed to the authorities “form a single package that must be fulfilled in full.” Zurabian says that would pave the way for a dialogue between the HAK and the government. But the HAK would still insist on the holding of snap presidential and parliamentary elections, he adds.
Speaking to “Irates de facto,” former parliament speaker Tigran Torosian decries as “shameful” the renewed Armenian campaign aimed at getting U.S. President Barack Obama to describe the 1915 mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide on April 24. “What Barack Obama has said or will say is a moral matter of himself and America, a matter of his and his country’s interest,” says Torosian. “Instead of begging, asking foreigners and then being disappointed and lambasting them, we must correctly determine what we have to do and enhance the importance of steps taken by our country.”
(Aghasi Yenokian)