Congress refuses to participate in NA hearings
The Armenian National Congress has refused to participate in the hearings on the Turkish-Armenian protocols in the National Assembly.
"This is really a show to pretend that there are authorities and opposition. We can't participate in such imitations because they are aimed at providing wrong information to the Armenian people. We have expressed our viewpoints several times. In his last speech, Ter-Petrosyan said that the Turkish-Armenian relations can't be separated from the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution," said ANC representative Levon Zurabyan.
Zurabyan doesn't consider the OSCE Co-Chairs' visit to Armenia during the National Assembly hearings by chance.
The "Heritage" and ARF are the only parties participating in the hearings and the ones that consider themselves to be the opposition. In his last press conference, Levon Zurabyan stated that the ANC would work with the two parties if they dropped their mandates. After that, not only did the parties not drop their mandates, but Raffi Hovhannisyan even took back his appeal for dropping his mandate.
"I wouldn't like to comment on the step by Raffi Hovhannisyan. As far as my proposal is concerned, I only said it because I was asked what "Heritage" and ARF had to do in order for us to treat them seriously."
Zurabyan believes that if the ARF and "Heritage" dropped their mandates, that would be a huge action in the international community and the internal political life. Their refusal to drop the mandates allows Zurabyan to say:
"This is all simply the show of protest instructed by the authorities. It is aimed at distracting the people from the real opposition. We demand Serzh Sargsyan's resignation because that is the only way to prevent dangerous processes."
Levon Zurabyan doesn't see any convincing answer from Serzh Sargsyan at the Public Council yesterday. "He only made funny statements. He didn't give a convincing answer to any question and deepened the concerns."
