Vazgen Manukyan told Pashinyan what he thinks about March 1

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan received the members of the Public Council headed by the chairman of the council Vazgen Manukyan. This was reported by the press service of the tyranny.

Welcoming the SC members, Prime Minister Pashinyan first referred to the message he sent today in connection with the events of March 1, 2008.

“I am happy to see you and to discuss issues related to the Public Council’s activities. A little while ago, in connection with the events of March 1, 2008, I made a speech and as the Prime Minister apologized on behalf of the state for all the election frauds and political persecutions that occurred during the history of the Third Republic.

That message, words of apology are addressed to all political forces, politicians and citizens who were subjected to political persecution during the Third Republic. I want to emphasize that this message is also addressed to you, Mr. Manukyan, as a leader of a political force, a politician who has led an opposition political force in the Republic of Armenia for many years and was a victim of election fraud.

Ms. Bakhshyan: You have also been involved in opposition political activity in Armenia for many years and your political force has also been a victim of betrayals, persecutions, and political violence. Mr. Safaryan, you have also engaged in opposition political activity.

I consider it very important to record this message and position at the state level, because we must have the strength to say that the problems in Armenia, if not 100 percent, at least 90 percent or more, originated from the point when the political will of the Armenian people was distorted.

Unfortunately, apart from perhaps the first presidential election in the history of the Third Republic, and a reservation can be made regarding the parliamentary elections of 1999, although those results were also appealed to the Constitutional Court, in the rest of the cases, at least my political assessment is that the election results were either falsified, or opportunities were not created for the free expression of the people, or rather, everything was done to distort the free expression of the people.

I want to record and I hope that we have a public consensus according to which the page of electoral fraud, political persecution, corruption, illegality, permissiveness, insolence, violation of human rights is closed, and there will be no return to those manners. In any case, I consider this the most important mission of our government and of me as the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia.

I am sure that we will remain very determined and steadfast in the service of that mission, regardless of the rating of our force in any election and what percentage of citizens will vote for our political force.

This is as a preface, I know that our meeting is not related to these issues, but I guess we should have a discussion on many related issues today. Thank you.”

In his turn, Vazgen Manukyan noted. “Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister. We really need to talk about the Public Council, but I also want to address what you said. It would be desirable for March 1 to become a symbol, not of fighting against each other, but of solidarity. What happened happened, a page was closed with it, and after this we should remember March 1st not to fight against each other, but as a day where we learned a lesson from our history and made it a day of solidarity for our entire people.

Whoever has a certain sin, has a criminal offense, should be punished, that is not the question, but I perceive March 1 as a day of solidarity, unity and learning a lesson.

Turning to the Public Council, I think that it is a very important body, it is no coincidence that such a body exists in 70 countries. And now there are new possibilities because it has become a constitutional body. An interesting group of very useful people, who are in a sense above politics and dedicated to the state, do not represent any political party, have no political ambitions, but have ambitions to build the country, to create, to become an important link that provides constant connection between the society and the government.

During the meeting, Vazgen Manukyan presented to the Prime Minister the works carried out in the direction of the formation of the Public Council and the planned steps in the direction of the further activities of the SC.