Former prisoner of conscience Karapet Rubinyan, the co-founder of the Committee of Political Prisoners and Politically Persecuted Persons, speaking of the indirect, through mass media, but harsh debate between the formal prisoners of conscience of the Armenian National Congress, at the request of Aravot, firstly noted that they were not prisoners of conscience anymore, “because everyone is former,” then added that no one had the power to perceive or not perceive anyone as a prisoner of conscience, “No one has the power either to revise or to propose new standards. All those who were persecuted, arrested, sent to jail and convicted for political ideas are prisoners of conscience. There is neither need, nor point in inventing new things. Some people have become nervous and they have started some pointless conversations, which is not worth approving to say the least.”
In response to our question what the reason for the started debate was, whether only the fact that those newly-declared “not prisoners of conscience” were not members of ANC anymore, Karapet Rubinyan said that the reason certainly was the controversies between the sides, “Some people tried to defend themselves not through a debate, but through emptily accusing their opponents and thus word by word we have reached an unpleasant situation, when people start to accuse each other.”
Rubinyan agreed to the observation that such cheap debates discredited the National Movement and those people’s struggle, as well as the “status” or “immunity” of that so-called prisoner of conscience. “It is unequivocally so. There certainly are some reasons for that – the atmosphere that exists, when the struggle itself has been distorted or has turned into different thing, certainly has an impact. However, there is no doubt that it is pointless to stoop to that level,” stated former prisoner of conscience Karapet Rubinyan.
NAIRA MAMIKONYAN
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