“The conviction of Tigran Arakelyan and other ANC activists showed once again that the regime does everything to restrain social and political activity,” Armen Grigoryan, the head
of the Democracy for Development NGO, assessed the conviction of the ANC activists to 2-6 years in this manner.
According to him, “Every one of us knows that those 6 years are too long a term and don’t correspond, are not adequate to their actions. We see that there have been various crimes committed and they got fewer years or shorter terms for those crimes, but the guys have gotten too many – 2-6 years – which is not adequate. In my opinion, it is political pressure on the society to show that every activity can have such an end. I consider this a political, rather than legal decision in the framework of the law.” There are speculations that it is in the ANC interest. In Armen Grigoryan’s words, “I don’t think it is a subject to be used for benefit, particularly when people from its ranks who are active guys will be absent during that period, we have seen many of them at Harsnakar and many other places. It is bad not only for the ANC, but also for the civil society, because people who are active in various civic processes are left out of those processes. Also, it is bad for the ANC; I don’t think that the ANC will use this for benefit.”
Read also
As for those cases when they had committed crimes, but they had been sentenced to shorter terms in prison, we asked Mr. Grigoryan to make specific examples. He answered, “I cannot remember specific examples right now, I cannot name them right now, because I will certainly make a mistake, but if we follow the press, we will see that it makes clear examples and mentions those people’s names.”
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
