“Forbidding Raffi Hovhannisyan to put up a tent is illegal,” Artak Zeynalyan, a human rights advocate and a member of the Republic Party political council, stated during a conversation with www.aravot.am. Let us remind that Karen Andreasyan, the Human Rights Defender, also stated with regard to forbidding Raffi Hovhannisyan to put up a tent that the law didn’t forbid that. The main reason of the government for not allowing putting up a tent was that one cannot put up a tent in Freedom Square, since it was the backyard of a cultural center. Responding to this reasoning, Mr. Zeynalyan stated: “A cultural center is also for people to protest around it and have a cover over their heads as protection against rain. What is the purpose of those cultural centers? On the other hand, the cultural center should be in the shadow of Freedom Square, since Armenia’s independence was formed there.” In response to our question whether there was discrimination against R. Hovhannisyan, Mr. Zeynalyan said: “There is also discrimination here, and it cannot be justified from both human and legal perspectives.” Vardan Harutyunyan, the head of the Rights and Freedom Center NGO, also considered the issue from legal and human perspectives. He noted: “From the legal perspective, one can put up a tent. However, the human perspective is more important. When one is sitting in Freedom Square, one is on a hunger strike, and it is raining, what prevents people from helping that person? And the authorities try to create impossible, difficult conditions for people. I don’t know whether it is their nature or their habit to impede people, make it as bad as possible. The issue of putting up a tent should have been solved in a minute. If one is on a hunger strike, one should have a tent, period.” In response to our question why when Andreas Ghukasyan, a candidate for president, was on a hunger strike in front of the National Academy of Sciences building a month ago, he was allowed to put up a cover, whether the National Academy of Sciences building was not a cultural center, V. Harutyunyan said the following: “I don’t want to compare. Those are different things. He was a candidate for president, and the government was so sure of its victory that they didn’t pay attention not only to hunger strikers, but also to rivals. There conviction was unshakeable. And Raffi’s victory was like snow in summer. They have lost their heads because of that, and they consider Raffi not as a candidate for president, but rather as an enemy in the same way as Levon Ter-Petrossian in 2008. The government sees Raffi and itself in opposite trenches today; that is why they don’t treat him as they treated Ghukasyan and would treat anyone else.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
