VAHAN HOVHANNESIAN CAMPAIGNS IN ARARAT REGION

Yerkir
11.02.2008 17:23

Yerevan (Yerkir) – ARF Bureau member and National Assembly vice
speaker Vahan Hovhannesian was campaigning in Ararat Region today,
starting his trip from the town of Masis. He, however, could not hold
a rally there because the power was cut in the town.

Hovhannesian continued to Vedi, but before that, he stopped at
the Borodino food processing plant, where hundreds of farmers were
staging a protest demonstration demanding the plant paid the debts
accumulated since last year for the tomatoes the plant bought from
them. Hovhannesian settled some of the issues outright and promised
to assist them in settling the others.

In Vedi, Ruzan Arakelian, a member of the ARF faction in parliament,
told those gathered that Hovhannesian’s platform includes plans of
developing Armenian regions and remote villages. She also said that
rule of law should be imposed in Armenia.

Addressing the crowds in Vedi, Hovhannesian said that he has no plans
of forcing people to attend his rallies and that he is sure everybody
has attended this rally voluntarily. He briefed them on the case of
the Borodino plant, saying it is typical and that both farmers and
businessmen suffer from situations like that.

He said that we have built not a bad but a wrong country. A handful of
people buy land from people at a very low price, becoming feudal and
forcing people to become serfs. One of the reasons this is happening
is that there are middlemen between the authorities and the people:
Dashnaktsutyun will eliminate those middlemen.

He said that our people have found themselves between two extremes:
the old and the current regimes. "The old regime are those who want
to get the power back by seeding hatred, by ruining everything and
returning the territories.

The current regime are those who say that it would be good if things
remain as they are. Both are wrong," Hovhannesian said.

"Dashnaktsutyun is proposing the only way out. Dashnaktsutyun is
against monopolies that result in economic crises, it is against
oligarchs, who treat people like they are serfs. If winning, an ARF
president will be able to return freedom and justice to our people."