STEPAN DEMIRCHYAN: “THE CONSEQUENCES ARE NOT SURMOUNTED”
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“The grave consequences of March 1-2 are not addressed today. Today Armenia faces socio-ecomic, moral and psychological crisis,” Leader of the People’s Party of Armenia (HZhK) Stepan Demirchyan announced today when summing up the passing year.
The HZhK Leader congratulated political prisoner Alexander Arzumanyan on his birthday and wished him an immediate release. Demirchyan also condemned the violence against detainee Grigor Voskerchyan and considered the trail of the case against seven as an utter farce. Demirchyan said that the publicised eavesdropping of Arzumanyan’s telephone talks further dispelled the alleged coup attempts in Armenia.
Stepan Demirchyan noted that the artificial tension during the previous court ruling might give grounds for the authorities to hold closed sittings but, in his opinion, a case finding deep resonance in public should be heard openly.
“The authorities had an opportunity to avoid tough assessments of the PACE Monitoring Committee but they missed the chance.” The HZhK Leader meant PACE’s recommendation to release people jailed for their political viewpoints.
Demirchyan thinks that the authorities should free the political prisoners and start a dialogue with the opposition.
With regard to their further steps, Demirchyan reminded about the ANC’s intention to hold a massive pan-national rally on March 1.
“The authorities themselves enhance rallies,” said Demirchyan grounding his statement for the fact that the authorities don’t give halls to the Congress, address the existing problems, release the political prisoners and make a fair inquiry into the March 1-2 riot.
Today Mr. Demirchyan made rather bleak predictions for 2009: the international economic crisis has added to the existing problems. The crisis will pose numerous hardships before Armenia.
In reply to a journalist’s question why the Congress qualified the Monitoring Committee’s preliminary report as a victory and whether they do not realise its negative outcome, Demirchyan said he would avoid using the word “victory.” Then he added that people rigging the election, and hindering the democratic development of the country should care for the aftermaths.
He noted that Armenia continues ignoring the PACE resolutions. “People tampering the 2003 elections are still unpunished, A1+ hasn’t been returned to the air, moreover, they cancelled tenders for TV frequencies by 2010,” concluded Demirchyan
