REPUBLICANS AND ARF MEMBERS DENY THE EXISTENCE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS
Support A1+!Today the RA Police, the Prosecutor’s Office, the National Security Service (NSS) and the representatives of NA parallel commission evaded the discussion of 1 March events. Representatives of the given institutions did not appear at the discussion directed to find a solution to the issue of political prisoners and their problems. The meeting was held at the administrative center of the Democratic Party of Armenia (DPA).
Member of the DPA Rouzan Khachatrian drew everybody’s attention to the fact that “It is the Republicans and the Dashnaktsutyun (ARF) members that deny the existence of political prisoners in Armenia.” In Khachatrian’s words it is rather surprising as the founders of the Republican Party Ashot Navasardian and Andranik Margarian themselves used to be political prisoners at Soviet times. As for the Dashnaktsutyun members they claim that they used to be political prisoners in 1996 but for some unknown reason today’s detained opposition representatives are not considered to be political prisoners by them. “Quite possibly the reason lies in the fact that nowadays the Dashnaktsutyun members themselves detain today’s political prisoners.”
Lawyer Tigran Ter-Yesayan believes that the notion “political prisoner” is much wider than we believe. “We speak of 1 March but we forget that these events developed still back in 2003 and 2005, when persecution after opposition members, their relatives and family members began”, states Ter-Yesayan.
Concerning RA Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian’s statement that the February 19 elections were a “step forward” against the previous ones, Tigran Ter-Yesayan declared: “If we look at them from afar, such as from France, the Minister is right. But you cannot agree with the statement if you live in Armenia.”
At today’s discussion there were also a number of ordinary citizens present who considered that on February 19 their voting right was violated.
