MARGINAL LEADER REMERGES
ArmenPress
July 18 2005
YEREVAN, JULY 18, ARMENPRESS: The leader of a minor ultra-nationalist
marginal party, called Armenian Aryan Union, spoke out against attempts
to carry out ‘a color revolution’ in Armenia patterned from change of
power in some other former Soviet republics, saying they are plotted
and pushed for by Western powers which want their dominance in the
Caucasus.
Armen Avetisian, the leader of the party, who was handed down
a three-year suspended sentence on 18 March for “inciting racial
hatred,” said last Saturday the recently established Coordinating
Alliance for Protection of National Interests, will be fighting to
drive out from Armenia’s political landscape “all external impact.”
Avetisian then lashed out at some opposition leaders, who “are
enthusiastically reiterating statements by some foreign leaders and
defend other nations’ interests.” Avetisian said the new alliance
will be acting as “a chain between those representatives of the
authorities and the opposition who are concerned with the future of
the nation,’ saying also the alliance is seeking closer cooperation
with Hanrapetutyun (Republic) and Nor Zhamanakner (New Times) party.
The alliance is planning to hold its first conference on August 15,
when it will announce the names of political forces, which have agreed
to cooperate with it. Avetisian had been arrested in 2005, January for
a range of interviews in which he accused the tiny Jewish community
of Armenia of all hardships Armenians have been facing and calling
their expulsion from Armenia. Avetisian also threatened to unveil a
list of top government and parliament officials, who he claimed had
a non-traditional sexual orientation.