Raffi Hovhannisian entered Freedom Square
Not only did Raffi Hovhannisyan surprise the open congress of the "Heritage" party with his shaved moustache, but also his declaration of a hunger strike for an uncertain period. Mr. Hovhannisian refused to answer journalists' questions and said he wanted to be alone with his family for a while. He has currently declared a hunger strike called "Hunger Strike for Freedom" at Freedom Square.
Before declaring a hunger strike, Hovhannisian delivered a rather long speech and started with lines from the Bible. "There is a time for everything. There is a time to be born and die, to be happy and be sad, reap and sow, rise and come down and none of that is shameful." Mr. Hovhannisian made a smooth transition to our times and continued: "Now is the time for current president Serzh Sargsyan, with all his positive attributes, to step down and ensure the first free, fair and transparent elections 20 years after the foundation of the Republic of Armenia."
Raffi Hovhannisian left the sequence of extraordinary parliamentary and presidential elections up to Serzh Sargsyan.
According to him, all presidents of the independent Armenia have confused the state obligations with the obligations of their parties, but the coalition memorandum signed at Serzh Sargsyan's residence on February 17 was the climax. "As leader of the party, Serzh Sargsyan took advantage of his presidency, gathered his partners and filed an appeal to turn the Republic of Armenia into a partisan republic."
Hovhannisian touched upon all spheres and listed the current issues. The leader of "Heritage" party said though he has criticized all three RA presidents, Serzh Sargsyan was the only president who didn't accept any one of Turkey's preconditions for Armenian-Turkish relations and viewed the fact that the NKR's independence is not recognized by Armenia as the major flaw in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution.
Raffi Hovhannisian promised that "Heritage" party will put in all its efforts to fight to turn Armenia into a democratic country. The first step was his hunger strike and the last will be victory.
Raffi Hovhannisian left after his speech and his hunger strike came as a surprise for most of his partisans.
"I can't say how long the hunger strike will take. Mr. Hovhannisian spoke very clearly about the reasons. We'll see how long it takes. The only thing I can say is that the hunger strike was a call to our people," "Heritage" faction MP Armen Martirosyan told "A1+".
