At the press conference of the members of Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian alliance, the journalists asked several times that he has said that there are political prisoners in Armenia, so who these political prisoners are and whether he considers Volodya Avetisyan a political prisoners now, whether his position in the past constrained his to declare that Zhirayr Sefilyan and Volodya Avetisyan are political prisoners, Seyran Ohanyan gave no clear answer, saying that he had not given any name by saying, political prisoners, hence there is no contradiction in his words.
He assured that his statements during the tenure were reasonable and are justified as of today, “We will do everything to have no political prisoners in Armenia. I respect both Zhirayr Sefilyan and Volodya Avetisyan. They are all my comrades, especially Sefilyan who had been in various command positions. The law enforcements and today’s government should be a proper evaluation to the political prisoners.”
To the question that now you refuse to give names of political prisoners, then how are you going to decide after coming to power who the political prisoners are and what you will do to have no political prisoners. Vartan Oskanian responded that they consider that today there are definitely political prisoners, “For me, Andrias Ghukasyan is definitely a political prisoner, also Zhirayr Sefilyan, man who brought bread and others.” He said that if they come to power, it is excluded for anyone to be seen behind the bars for their political views. To the question of journalists to Oskanian whether there were no political prisoners during his office as a minister, replied, “In those times if there were political prisoners, it was condemnable. Remind me, I do not remember names, if you give me names, I can say. If there are, be sure that I was against it all.”
