Heritage Party to convene a public assembly
On March 13, the Heritage Party convened a plenary session of its republic-wide Council. Aside from the Council's members-including the Executive Board members who are ex officio members of the Council-members of Heritage's parliamentary faction and leaders of the party's 39 regional divisions also attended the meeting.
In connection with the current state of affairs in Armenia, the Council adopted a resolution which is presented below.
Tomorrow, on March 15, the Heritage Party will convene a public assembly to which Heritage Party chairman Raffi K. Hovannisian will deliver his keynote address. The event will be held, at 3pm, in the hall of the Hamazgayin Theater, located at 26 Amirian Street (the State Theater and Film Institute) in Yerevan.
RESOLUTION OF THE HERITAGE PARTY COUNCIL
Attesting to the Heritage Party's persistent efforts over the years-throughout the Republic, at parliament, and within international circles-in defense of Armenia's national and state interests and the protection of civil rights;
Evaluating Heritage's commitment to help solve the individual, collective, and societal problems of our fellow countrymen;
Considering that the party's initiatives toward resolving the great majority of those problems have not even being brought onto the agendas of national bodies-and of the parliament in the first place;
Underscoring that the agendas of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of power still do not reflect the foreign and domestic demands and legitimate expectations of the citizens of Armenia and of the Armenian people, and that the current foreign policy continually surrenders our state sovereignty and national interests while domestic policy further deepens inequality, unlawfulness, injustice and the resulting emigration;
Registering that, having confused the presidential seat and state duty with political party offices and functions, the leaders of the three ruling coalition parties signed, on 17 February 2011, an unconstitutional and undemocratic memorandum which, instead of responding to the nation's immediate challenges, simply betrays the chief party leader's and the aforementioned forces' intention to seize-for seven more years and with the very same composition and ratio-the power that actually belongs to the people, which has created a qualitatively new situation in the country;
Regarding as justified the Heritage parliamentary faction's protest against the foregoing realities and their untoward prospects which it manifested at the National Assembly on 28 February, sounding an alarm for the body politic and a battlecry for mastery of its rights;
The plenary session of the Heritage Party's republic-wide Council declares that the emergency situation created in the country presumes emergency solutions and, in accordance with which and in order to guard the country against the inevitable precipice, hereby decides:
1. To achieve, by all possible means-from the podium of the National Assembly to the public squares-a legitimate and pre-term formation of all branches of power in the Republic.
2. To define as the priorities for those new authorities which are anchored in the Constitution, the rule of rights, and vital national interests:
The imperative of securing free and fair elections, legitimate procedures and results and therefore legitimate authorities. In particular, this requirement should be carried out on the basis of the draft Electoral Code prepared by the Heritage Party and by way of guaranteeing equality of all electoral conditions; formation of balanced election commissions; transparency of the lists of voters who have actually cast their ballots; and video recording of the election process.
The decoupling from government of oligarchs and of all other big business; the complete dismantling of artificial monopolies; the exposing of, and subsequently a full legal accounting for, any and all abuses of office and conflicts of interest at all levels of the administration-beginning with the presidency-pursued for personal, familial, or political party gain.
In this connection, the assurance that the abovementioned large economic actors, having been decoupled from government, discharge their tax obligations to the state; a correspondent sharp increase in the state budget by means of collecting the superprofits of the several businessmen who have attained them as a result of the artificial inflation that has been registered in the years past; and owing to this budget growth, a marked rise in the minimum wage, pensions, unemployment and other benefits, and thus the mitigation of social tension and polarization.
Based upon legislation to be adopted at the National Assembly, the ruling out of undue big-business influence, inadmissibility of members of parliament who are at once active entrepreneurs, and dismissal of officials who pursue private interests.
The adoption and subsequent implementation of simplified tax laws that grant tax breaks for small- and medium-size enterprises and guard the business domain against the tax terror and arbitrariness of state.
The exposing of, and subsequently a full legal accounting for, any and all unlawful and unrightful actions taken in connection with the great crime that was committed on 1-2 March 2008 and thereafter.
The guarantee of the fundamental rights of free speech, freedom of movement, and freedom of assembly and protest, and the bringing to justice of those officials who violate such rights.
The release of political prisoners and those who are arrested on political motives, and the bringing to justice of those judges who have "legalized" political persecution.
The achievement of judicial independence, including compensation-on the account of the judge's personal property and possessions-for the damages caused to citizens who have suffered as a result of a clearly unjust ruling issued by the given judge.
The execution of fundamental reforms in the law enforcement system, including the bringing to justice of those officials and officers who have carried out violations against citizens and members of parliament.
The rearmament and modernization of the Armenian national army by reference to best international practices, improvement of the system of civil defense, achievement of civilian control over the armed forces, uncovering of the circumstances behind the deaths of military servicemen who have been killed in times of peace, and the bringing to justice of those army commanders and officials who unlawfully drew the army into politics on 1-2 March 2008.
The execution of fundamental reforms in the national security system and its branches, exposing of those agents who are, or have been, collaborating with the special services of other countries, and the depoliticization of the National Security Service and clarification of its functions.
The immediate development and subsequent implementation of a national strategy to prevent the impending demographic disaster. This strategy must include, inter alia, the creation of special and privileged social and economic conditions for local residents so as to prevent in particular the border and high-mountainous regions from losing their human resources.
The ecologically safe and lawfully sound extraction of the earth's minerals, which are national property, and the allotment of a reasonable share of the relevant profits to the state budget, termination of old and new projects that presuppose irreparable environmental damage, and the launching of criminal cases and lawsuits in connection with unlawful activities.
The declaration null and void of those normative acts (widespread encroachment upon the right to property, prohibition of street vending; mandatory automobile insurance, unsubstantiated high customs duties for vehicles that are registered in Georgia, exploitation of certain unsafe mines, etc.) which have been carried out by different branches of government in contravention of the fundamental provisions, spirit, and criteria of the Armenian Constitution-and thus of the rights of different societal classes-and compensation for the damages caused to the state and its citizens.
The subsidization of agricultural enterprises and specifically of small farms and of factories that process agricultural products, and the resultant increase in the level of Armenia's self-sufficiency and food security.
The fundamental stimulation of advanced science and quality education, creation of privileged conditions for scientists and scholars, including the youth, depoliticization of educational establishments and hence the removal of incumbent high-level state officials from university boards.
The conduct of public education that is anchored in the Armenian language, together with a sharp increase in the quality of teaching foreign languages and cultures, encouragement of the profession of translation and interpretation, with the realization of translations of benchmark international textbooks and scholarly works for university application as well as the rendering into Armenian of international project and program guidelines.
The withdrawal from the National Assembly's agenda of the Armenian-Turkish "protocols," which debase national dignity, as well as the adoption and subsequent fulfillment of a national program for the mastery and resettlement of the Homeland.
Armenia's and the international community's recognition of the Republic of Mountainous Karabagh (Artsakh) within its legally-defined boundaries and as established in full compliance with the precepts of international law, the provision of nationwide solidarity to the process of settlement in the areas that have been reunited with Artsakh, acknowledgment as genocide of Azerbaijan's actions taken against the Armenians of eastern Transcaucasia, and in sum formal rejection of the "Madrid Proposals."
Accomplishment of the full potential of Homeland-Diaspora unity on the basis of the Constitution and a legal foundation for mutual relations.
3. In this light, to convene a special congress of the Heritage Party during the instant calendar year as specified by the chairman of the party's Executive Board.
