PRESS RELEASE
The Heritage Party
Yerevan 0033, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 – 10) 58.08.77, 52.22.38
Fax: (+374 – 10) 54.38.97
Email: info@heritage.am; office@heritage.am
Website:

August 1, 2006

HERITAGE HOLDS FOURTH PARTY CONGRESS:

VARDAN KHACHATRIAN ELECTED BOARD CHAIRMAN

Yerevan–The Heritage Party convened today its fourth annual congress at the
auditorium of the Writers’ Union of Armenia. The conference was called to
discuss the party’s accomplishments–despite countless roadblocks placed by
the sitting authorities against normal party operations–to draw attention
to its shortfalls, and to outline future courses of action.

Heritage’s political secretary Vardan Khachatrian welcomed the capacity
audience with opening remarks. He mentioned that 600 delegates from Yerevan
and across Armenia were expected to take part in the congress, but that the
space limitations of the hall had allowed for only 213. "Despite a series of
formal requests sent to the government, the latter refused to provide us
access to any of the rooms at its disposal and routinely made available for
such meetings," Khachatrian asserted. "Fear seems to have become a political
category in Armenia."

The congress opened with the singing of Armenia’s national anthem, "Mer
Hairenik." The delegates then approved the day’s agenda, and the convention’
s Secretariat and its Credentials and Editorial Commissions were elected.

The first speaker was Heritage board member Anahit Bakhshian, who presented
an accounting of the board’s activities since last the party convened.
Bakhshian maintained that against the backdrop of domestic multi-party
politics, numerous impediments and incidences of repression, and an
imperfect atmosphere surrounding the political opposition in Armenia, the
Heritage Party was able to find its rightful place, keep its ethical
character untainted, and remain faithful to its agenda and values. In short
time, the number of party members has doubled to five thousand, new regional
divisions have opened, and more than five scores of public meetings have
been organized. That the party exceeded the fifty percent success mark in
last year’s local elections, said Bakhshian, can be attributed to its direct
contact with the people–both in principle and in fact.

"Opportunists and informants have no place among us. Our goal is to turn
Heritage into an arena for decent citizens, a community which will assume
the mission of forming a civilized, democratic, and highly developed
society," Bakhshian said. She also noted that the party must prepare for the
2007 parliamentary elections and will support fair and transparent elections
as the only legitimate path to progress.

Following the approval of the board’s report, Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman
of the Heritage Party, was invited to take the floor. In a powerful keynote
address, he specified the benchmarks of the party’s future, discussed the
state of Armenia within and beyond its borders, and set down forthcoming
measures and priorities that would keep real and relevant the party’s goals
through meeting new challenges.

In Hovannisian’s view, the Heritage Party convenes its fourth congress
having attained a stage of distinct organizational know-how. It has been
enriched with the experience of hard work and the bitter yet enlightening
lessons from our daily lives. "The party’s human potential has grown not
artificially, nor by the use of financial and administrative levers, nor on
the account of transparent political benevolence, but rather through inner
conviction, conscience, and a noble drive," Hovannisian stated, underscoring
that our national well-being will not be served to us on a silver platter,
but that it must be labored for and earned by all Armenians in our quest to
strengthen the foundations of statehood.

"The ruling administration, which only operates for self-interest, must be
met with common rationality, high consciousness, and readiness to sacrifice
for the cause." This, according to Heritage’s chairman, is the key for the
transformation of state and society. The road chosen and traveled by, in
Hovannisian’s belief, is laden with thorns, but the party cannot and will
not resign its mission. In his words, the harmony between the individual and
the collective, the alliance of the private and the national, the desire for
freedom coupled with and actualized by an unyielding determination to fight
for right will help us forge Armenia’s tomorrow, tend to its shared legacy,
and fulfill its sacred national purpose.

After the keynote remarks, Hovsep Khurshudian, chairman of Heritage’s
Constitutional Commission, presented its report and offered motions to amend
the party’s Charter. Approved by open ballot, these changes did away with
the elected post of party chairman, replacing it with a chairperson elected
by the board from among its members.

At the end of the first session, the delegates made nominations for new
membership in the party’s executive board. Through secret ballot, the
congress elected as board members teacher and Artsakh war veteran Davit
Badalian; high school principal Anahit Bakhshian; sociologist Dolores
Davtian; theology professor Vardan Khachatrian; electrical engineer Gevorg
Kalenchian; physics professor Rafik Hakobian; Armenia’s first Minister of
Foreign Affairs Raffi Hovannisian; teacher and judo trainer Armen
Martirosian; and pharmacist Garnik Sahakian.

In the convention’s second session, the 2005-2006 report by the Audit
Commission was approved, and new Constitutional and Audit Commissions were
elected. The Constitutional Commission comprises Hovsep Khurshudian, Arthur
Harutiunian, Sargis Manukian, Armen Martirosian, and Gayane Poghosian. The
Audit Commission includes Arthur Galstian, Karapet Kalenchian, Asia
Hambardzumian, Mamikon Sargsian, and Armine Vardanian.

The Heritage Party congress also adopted a resolution expressing concern
about unjust and undemocratic elections, which continue to reproduce the
ruling clan. "As a consequence of the unreliability of the electoral system,
the formation of power in Armenia is dependent on external forces and, being
answerable solely to them, the incumbent authorities are reticent to conduct
policies and make decisions that are in the country’s national and sovereign
interests," the resolution states. The party asserts that the accrued
adverse phenomena pose an enormous threat to Armenia’s sovereignty,
democratization, national security, and stable development. Hence, the
regional situation today compels each of us to become "not a subject but a
citizen, not a government discard who is demeaned psychologically and
crushed by poverty and privation, but a proud, dignified, and spiritual
human being" for whom liberty is the value supreme.

Following the congress, the newly elected executive board of the Heritage
Party convened its first meeting wherein Vardan Khachatrian was elected
chairman of the board upon the motion of Raffi Hovannisian.

Founded in 2002, Heritage has regional divisions throughout the land. Its
central headquarters are located at 7 Vazgen Sargsian Street, Yerevan 0010,
Armenia, with telephone contact at (374-10) 580.877, fax at (374-10)
543.897, email at info@heritage.am, and website at