ARF LEADER VISITS HUNGER STRIKING HOVANNISIAN
ARF leader Vahan Hovennesian meets with opposition leader Raffi
Hovannisian in Liberty Square
YEREVAN-Armenian Revolutionary Federation Parliamentary bloc and
Bureau member Vahan Hovanessian visited Raffi Hovannisian on Freedom
Square Tuesday to express solidarity with the opposition leader,
two days after the latter started a hunger strike.
Vahan Hovanessian had a brief conversation-not audible to
journalists-with Raffi Hovannisian, telling journalists surrounding
them, “I am not here to see you.”
But when asked what he thought about Raffi Hovannisian’s hunger strike,
the ARF leader said, “That, I can tell you. I think this is taking
it to an extreme. Everything aside, Mr. Hovannisian has earned a
large number of votes. I don’t think all avenues of struggle were
exhausted. This is my honest conviction.”
He added, “Of course, I am not here to give lessons or advice; I am
here to express my solidarity. But I would have loved to express that
solidarity in other arenas, and not here.”
Asked what else Hovannisian could have done, the ARF Bureau member
said that his party has answered that question repeatedly.
The ARF argues that regime change can be accomplished gradually,
starting with the Yerevan municipal elections in May. Negotiations
between opposition parties to form an opposition front in recent days
have not yielded concrete results yet.
On March 10, Raffi Hovannisian said during a rally that on April 9,
Serzh Sarkisian will be sworn in as president “over my dead body,”
adding that he will start a hunger strike on Freedom Square.
“If on April 9, Sarkisian takes his fake oath on the Holy Bible,
and if the Catholicos desecrates the Bible and blesses the candidate
[Sarkisian] who mocks the people, then that will happen over my dead
body,” he had said.
Raffi Hovannisian has since remained on Freedom Square, where several
political leaders and thousands of supporters have visited him to
express solidarity with the barevolution leader.
On Tuesday afternoon, Hovannisian held a press conference. Regarding
his foreign policy priorities, Hovannisian stated that he is against
integration into the Eurasian Customs Union. “This does not imply
that Armenia should not develop relations with Asian countries and
the East,” Hovannisian said. “Such relations should be forged over
a different path.”
Reflecting on a proposal made by another opposition figure Aram
Sargsyan who suggested that opposition groups in Parliament relinquish
their mandates, Hovannisian said that no such necessity will arise
if Armenia holds snap parliamentary elections.
Asked about the prospect of Sarkisian visiting him at Liberty Square,
Hovannisian declared that he has nothing left to say to Mr. Sarkisian
but is willing to “meet and listen to him with respect.”
Meanwhile the Constitutional Court of Armenia continued hearings
on the appeal against the official results of Armenia’s February 18
presidential election. The next session will convene tomorrow.
On Wednesday, Heritage Party board Vice-President Armen Martirosyan
will hold a press conference at noon, and Raffi Hovannisian will hold
a press conference at 5 pm.
From: Baghdasarian
http://asbarez.com/108748/arf-leader-visits-hunger-striking-hovannisian/