SOME PARTIES IN NAGORNO-KARABAKH REPUBLIC ISSUE JOINT STATEMENT
DENOUNCING VIOLENCE COMMITTED AGAINST DASHNAK CANDIDATE PAVEL MANUKYAN
AS MAJOR CRIME

STEPANAKERT, June 24. /ARKA/. Some parties in Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic – Dashnaktsutyun, Movement 88, Our Home is Armenia and
Communist Party – whose candidates run in for NKR National Assembly’s
seat, issued a joint statement denouncing violence committed against
Dashnak candidate, Pavel Manukyan, as major crime. The political
parties find pressure upon freedom of speech and free thinking
unacceptable and view it as human rights violation and dignity
humiliation. The statement’s authors are urging NKR’s President Arkady
Ghulassyan to take drastic steps to prevent situation destabilization
in the republic. “The situation prompts concern, as such a conduct of
Karabakh’s Defence Minister arouses fear that the country can lapse
into authoritarian regime again”, the statement says. On June 21,
Pavel Manukyan, candidate put up by Dashnaktsutyun party in
Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s parliamentary elections, was bitten up by
NKR Defence Ministry’s high-ranking officials. Manukyan accuses the
republic’s Defence Minister Seyran Ohanyan in reprisals against
him. M.V. -0–