Political prisoners are put up for sale
"With their utter improvidence Armenian authorities are leading the country to a downfall," Levon Zurabyan, a senior representative of the Armenian National Congress (HAK), said following the recent Obama- Erdoğan meeting in the USA and Erdoğan's statements.
"Earlier Armenian authorities said Erdoğan wouldn't depart for America unless the Turkish parliament ratified the Armenian-Turkish Protocols. Moreover, Armenian authorities thought America could exert pressure on Turkey and ensure desirable results. Meanwhile, the Congress said Turkey would link the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement with the Karabakh conflict settlement and the US wouldn't be able to press Turkey till the end. We were right in our predictions. Armenian authorities have proved that they are light-headed and deceitful political figures guided by wrong calculations," said Levon Zurabyan.
"Our authorities gained nothing from the renouncement of the Armenian Genocide in Zurich," added Zurabyan.
On the eve of Human Rights Day Levon Zurabyan reminded that last year Armenia marked December 10 with 100 political prisoners and a ban on opposition marches.
"Today Armenia has 15 political prisoners. Besides, the City Hall has sanctioned the opposition's march due on December 10. The authorities seem to have sobered up and realized that the ban on marches mars their image," said the HAK representative.
Levon Zurabyan couldn't say on which criteria the authorities released political prisoners.
"The authorities treat political prisoners as their hostages and have put them on sale. Releasing them one after another they try to extort concessions from public, opposition and international structures. That's why we do not take the authorities seriously and don't start a dialogue with them. They are vandals. We shall not enter a dialogue with them unless the last political prisoner is freed.
Let me bring the example of chief editor of Haykakan Zhamanak daily Nikol Pashinyan who is still kept in detention. The Central Election Commission has registered Pashinyan as a parliamentary candidate but Pashinyan's right to inviolability is breached. Pashinyan can be kept in custody only by a CEC decision which doesn't exist as such. If, in reality, the authorities are ready to compete with Pashinyan on an equal footing they must immediately release him otherwise they will confirm their cowardice and meanness.
Eventually, Pashinyan was registered as a candidate under the pressure of international structures and Armenian National Congress," concludde Levon Zurabyan.
