In Edgar Vardanyan’s Opinion, it will draw more attention to the struggle
Raffi Hovhannisyan stated during a rally in Freedom Square yesterday that if Serzh Sargsyan “takes a false oath” on April 9, he would take that oath on his, Raffi Hovhannisyan’s, corpse. www.aravot.am asked Edgar Vardanyan, an expert and a political scientist of the ACNIS, whether that radical measure was the last step or it was a step that could be the beginning of
a new process. “Hunger strike is a really radical step, but it doesn’t mean that the one who takes this radical step has exhausted all the other steps. It is just that there is a time limit, because deadlines have been announced. The inauguration day has been mentioned as the deadline, and society has expectations till that date. I think that taking that into account, as well as the fact that the government doesn’t want to meet the opposition’s demands, and it has already employed certain means of provocation, under these circumstances, Mr. Hovhannisyan took the most effective step of influencing the people’s minds,” the ACNIS expert noted. We asked him whether it was a step to influence the people’s minds or the government’s mind. “I think the people’s minds, because in that case, the people will pressure the government; I think one shouldn’t have any delusions about the government’s conscience or other feelings. This hunger strike will draw more attention to the struggle and possibly, give renewed impetus to the struggle. Let me also say that the struggle’s conception is basically Gandhism; it is just that it is confined to one person for now. It is possible that this step will lead various citizens, political and social groups who have espoused this conception to become more active and society to overcome the state of passiveness, stop being, as it were, an onlooker and play a more active role,” Edgar Vardanyan said.
Emma GABRIELYAN
