PAP Condemns Kidnapping Of Its Member, Suggests Considering Boycott

PAP CONDEMNS KIDNAPPING OF ITS MEMBER, SUGGESTS CONSIDERING BOYCOTT OF PARLIAMENT

News | 09.02.15 | 10:16

Tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan’s Prosperous Armenia Party has condemned
the kidnapping and beating of member of its political council Artak
Khachatryan, considering it as “an arrogant and cynical challenge to
political forces and society.”

Enlarge Photo Artak Khachatryan

The incident took place near the Tashir shopping center in Yerevan
on Saturday afternoon as three armed men wearing masks forced Artak
Khachatryan into a car and took him to an unknown direction. The
man, who was also beaten up, was later found near his home in an
unconscious state.

Khachatryan is known as an active participant in recent protests
against the new law on the sales tax. Remarkably, the attack on the PAP
member took place two days after a large conference of non-governing
forces invited by the party’s leader Tsarukyan to discuss the current
state of affairs in Armenia.

In its statement on Sunday the PAP, in particular, said: “It is clear
that the responsibility for what happened lies with the political
authorities. We consider the supreme political power of the country
to be the main party that is responsible for the gangster atmosphere
and the arbitrariness that have been formed in the country and this
power also bears personal responsibility for everything.”

“Instead of solving the accumulated problems, tackle the serious
challenges facing the state and the people, ensuring the internal
atmosphere of solidarity in the country, the political power chooses
cowardly methods of kidnapping, stabbing in the back, beating,”
the Political Council of the PAP said.

The party that has the second largest parliamentary faction and is
a key member of the “non-governing” coalition of forces along with
the Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Heritage demanded that
law-enforcement agencies immediately disclose the latest crime as
well as the other “ordered attacks on political and public figures
and activists.”

“Let no one think that violence against Artak Khachatryan and other
political and public figures will go unpunished,” the PAP said,
warning that “if the law-enforcement system cannot punish those
responsible for violence, the people will.”

The PAP Political Council suggested to the party’s faction “before
the full punishment of those responsible for the crime to discuss the
issue of a boycott of the parliament’s work and to begin consultations
with other factions on the next steps.”

Other opposition groups also denounced the attack on the PAP member.

The ANC described it as “another link in the chain of mean terrorist
activities” unleashed by the authorities against the opposition.

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