THIS IS CALLED HIGH TREASON
Gevorg Haroutyunyan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on April 15, 2008
Armenia

Interview with RAZMIK ZOHRABYAN, Vice Chair of the Republican Party
of Armenia

"Mr. Zohrabyan, Ter-Petrosyan continues gibing interviews to
the foreign media, in an attempt to present the Armenian reality
exclusively in dark colors. As an example, we can point out at least
his interview to the Russian ‘Novoe Izvestia’ newspaper."

"Such interviews are obviously addressed to the foreign readers who
do not properly imagine what the situation in Armenia is like. In the
preface of one of the interviews, the author informs that on April 17,
the US Congress is to organize hearings devoted to the post-electoral
situation of Armenia. This fact itself implies intervention in the
country’s domestic affairs.

Perhaps, there was some crisis in Armenia after the presidential
elections, but it was overcome. Therefore, there’s no need to make it
a subject of discussions. Especially considering that it cannot, in
any way, be perceived as a threat to the international community. As
regards the avoidance of specifying the real causes, the disregard
for the criminal manifestations and the observation of everything on
the political plane, they will only create a misunderstanding in the
perceptions of the international community.

In the interviews you specify, Ter-Petrosyan says that thousands
of people among his proponents have been arrested. Whereas, it’s
obvious that the police did not undertake any operation against the
participants of the unauthorized demonstrations and marches, and they
were restricted to forewarnings only. There were arrests only on March
1, ten days later, when the demonstrators incited armed confrontations
with the law enforcers.

This factor is being overlooked deliberately, with the purpose of
creating a false impression. No one was arrested for his political
views. Even those who committed concrete criminal offences are released
after serving their sentence.

The authorities do not want to restrict the freedom of their
citizens without having serious grounds. Attempting to violate
the constitutional order and staging a coup d’état are crimes
prescribed by the Criminal Code of our country, and they can’t go
unpunished. Those who perpetrated armed violence against the law
enforcers and committed robbery in such situation cannot be justified
on grounds of any political motivation because the fact of committing
a criminal offence is obvious. These people can be considered political
prisoners only by individuals pursuing political tendencies.

I think the chief organizer of all this is the first President who
should have appeared behind the bars long ago. It was he that pushed
the misguided and deceived crowd to criminal offences. And the fact
that the violations of the public order, the clashes with the law
enforcers, the lootings and robberies were committed in the pretext
of the political events plays no role here. The task of the court
is to thoroughly distinguish the political and criminal factors,
and up to date, this has been done successfully."

"How do you comment on the fact that L. Ter-Petrosyan, on the one
hand, tries to influence the opinion of the international community
through falsification and on the other hand, considers the work of
the international structures imperfect."

"During the presidential elections there observation missions were
carried out by representatives of all the authoritative international
organizations. In their assessments, they did, of course, point out
certain flaws and mistakes; however, they considered the general course
of the political developments as progress towards democracy. The
first President did not, obviously, like this assessment, and he
considers the international organizations as bureaucratic structures
where pensioner-diplomats and young careerists work.

I see another hazard: that is, no one speaks about the clashes and the
criminal offences, and attempts are made to present everything as a
spontaneous popular protest. I am sure that all the demonstrations and
marches were thoroughly planned, and the goal was to create an unstable
situation and chaos. The chief organizer of all this was the first
President. And he himself was governed by certain foreign centers.

The principal goal was not to run for election and hold victory, but
rather, to stage a coup. Or, in case of a failure, to instigate civil
splits and make Armenia vulnerable to the greatest maximum extent.

If the demonstrations were spontaneous, why didn’t they take place
before his appearing on the square? Now he’s doing his best to maximum
increase the external pressures on Armenia and to achieve the solution
of the Karabakh issue in the context of the geopolitical interests
rather than in the interests of the Armenian people. This is called
high treason.

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