ARF embarks on a termless hunger strike
24 members of ARF Dashnaktsutiun embarked on a termless hunger strike opposite the building of the RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs, chanting "Nalbandyan, leave!" and "No to preconditions". The participants of the hunger strike are mainly common members of ARF. ARF leaders Vahan Hovhannisyan, Kiro Manoyan and others informed A1+ that at some point they too will join the hunger strike, which is to go on until October 13, unless the authorities accept the offers of ARF. The reason for the hunger strike is the absence of negotiations about the Armenian-Turkish two-party Protocols, which were assessed by Vahan Hovhannisyan as "cheating the people."
"I am ready to debate with everyone, but the authorities avoid serious discussions," Mr. Hovhannisyan said. He admits that there is pressure on Armenia in terms of both the Karabakh conflict and the Armenian-Turkish relations. However, "I do not think the pressure is unendurable. Besides, if there is pressure, we must be frank with our own people. We must ask them to fight together. Instead, we are told that the Protocols are nice. And that is called cheating."
Mr. Hovhannisyan thinks that the RA authorities have agreed to sign such a document due to not realizing the consequences of such actions, as well as their responsibilities, "Officials also have national responsibilities; they are responsible for our future generations."
As for the fact that the Yerevan Municipality keeps turning down the requests by ARF about organizing mass events, Mr. Hovhannisyan said, "Out requests are turned down, whereas the Congress is allowed to do whatever they want for five solid days. This serves to reveal who is the real opposition and who is the real danger."
The ARF members are going to spend the night near the Ministry building, i.e. the hunger strike is also a sit-down strike. Taking into account the cases of violation against participants of hunger strikes and sit-down strikes, the ARF members are prepared to face violation.
After announcing about the start of the hunger strike, the ARF members started to collect signatures against signing the Protocols.
