Belgian MPs are impressed with the protest
Members of the Belgian delegation to Armenia met with journalists on September 12. Delegation member, President of the Brussels regional parliament, Julie de Groote, said that at midnight, the delegation members were in Baghramyan Avenue when the “No robbery” initiative members were holding a protest. “Certainly, we are not here to give any formulation, moreover an estimate regarding this demand because we know that it refers to the electricity price hike, but we would also be surprised if any Armenian delegation would assume the right to make any expression regarding our internal affairs. We are not going to give our assessment regarding the demand, but the reality itself, the gathering of these young people in the street enticed us a lot. And in these days, when we are in Armenia and in Karabakh, we have had numerous meetings starting from the president up to officials, and in addition, we have seen young people, we have seen in the university, we have seen representatives of many different NGOs, we have seen the opposition and understood that there is a high level of freedom of expression here. Young people were dancing and singing in the streets, bit also presenting their demands, a very unrestricted and peaceful atmosphere existed,” he said.
Julie De Groote noted that they had this feeling of friendly atmosphere. “When we met with the president, and he talked that in 2013, Armenia had to do what it did by accession to the EaEU, but at the same time, Armenia has included and integrated European values in it. We need to understand that the European values should live every day, and the form of presenting such demands by the youth is the daily use of real European values, a proof of viability because there are European texts, but the same European organizations, for example, there is a huge divergence of opinions between the European Council and the Council of Europe, both in terms of some texts and their wordings, as well as the conduct, while the true European values, being integrated to the Europe, this great willingness to cooperation with it that is displayed here, we see it, because the European values are a way of living.”
Ami CHICHAKYAN
