Gagik Harutyunyan was ashamed
President of the RA Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunyan was ashamed in front of 150 advocates of the International Federation of Human Rights, representatives of international organizations in Yerevan and a number of ambassadors to Armenia.
Just as Mr. Harutyunyan approached the podium to make his opening remarks for the 37th FIDH conference, former political prisoner Vardges Gaspari exclaimed the following in English: "Shame on you. Shame on the authorities sponsoring the assassins. Shame on you for permitting violations of constitutional rights."
Gagik Harutyunyan's bodyguards approached Vardges Gaspari and took him out, but Mr. Gaspari continued screaming louder: "Shame, shame".
Representative of "Heritage" party Lala Aslikyan continued Gaspari's words with the photos of political prisoners in her hands. She addressed all participants of the 37th FIDH conference. "You must boycott this conference. There are still 14 political prisoners in Armenia and you are sitting here and discussing human rights."
President of "Asbarez" club Levon Barseghyan had announced to boycott the FIDH conference in Yerevan and silently expressed his protest with a sign reading "Freedom to political prisoners".
After all that, Gagik Harutyunyan announced: "We can consider this as one of the expressions of functioning of civil society in Armenia." He began his welcoming remarks and said: "Only a fair and independent trial can guarantee the right to a fair trial."
Protests were also foreseen during the speech by RA Minister of Justice Gevorg Danielyan.
EU Commissioner on Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Fule also gave a speech during the conference and assured that the EU is ready to support Armenia in registering success in human rights. "In general, fundamental human rights and freedoms must not be imposed on any country. Each country must follow and be guided by those principles based on their interests."
The representatives of the Armenian National Congress had organized a protest during the conference. During the break, a number of FIDH advocates joined the protests and the representative of Nigeria Ezike Ibuchuku started screaming "azatutyun" (freedom) in Armenian.
The 37th FIDH conference will continue tomorrow.
