“We are fighting for the rule of law, civil liberties and the implementation of our country’s national interests, in the arms of the government or in the gulf of the opposition,” the Heritage party leader and first Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Raffi Hovhannisian said during a news conference at the Sputnik Armenia Multimedia Press Center on February 4. He mentioned that we have struggled for a long time so that this situation does not exist, and that struggle, which was not a struggle of 25 people, but a nationwide one, should not be privatized. Now that struggle has reached here.
Raffi Hovannisian explained, “It simply came to our notice then. And that the judiciary, on behalf of one judge, is in danger of becoming a political prisoner because it helps Armenia not to have political prisoners. This continuous process is simply intolerable for the future of Armenia. The Armenian people must take steps to take the lead in this process.”
Raffi Hovannisian, stating that he was in the opposition during the administrations of different authorities, noticed, “I can express dissatisfaction with this or that position, principle, or foreign policy step of each president’s administration. I can say that this or that principle, decision, or the principle of the second and third presidents was wrong, that the first president should have taken the wheat from Rafsanjani, as I had agreed, instead of from Turkey, or that Mr. Kocharyan should have remained President of Artsakh, and strong Artsakh should have remained, or that Mr. Sargsyan should have accepted the real result of the elections, or at least formed a government of national accord, or that I was against the Madrid principles, or the fourth president.
Or this prime minister should have remained faithful to those values, but publicly in Strasbourg, Moscow, and Brussels he takes the national, state approach, not as a citizen, but more as a statesman. He has speeches in which we have witnessed unprecedented expressions lately. We have never heard of such a thing. On Monday, I will have to address the EPP Political Assembly in absentia. They will tell me that this is what my prime minister is saying. What should the Armenian delegate say? Should I simply oppose the leaders of Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia?”
Read also
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
