THEY LIKE TO TEACH US LESSONS
Hayots Ashkhar Daily
08 Oct 2008
Armenia
According to Razmik Zohrabyan, "The proposals of the PACE Committee
are, in general terms, acceptable. But that doesn’t yet mean that
all of their requirements should be complied with. One of the key
requirements is ‘to release the political prisoners’, but I still stick
to the viewpoint that there are no political prisoners in Armenia.
I myself have been a political prisoner, and I understand what
it means.
Being a political prisoner means to be detained and convicted purely
for political views, without having committed a criminal offence. To
the best of my knowledge, no one has been convicted purely for his
political views.
Moreover, mild punitive measures have been imposed on the majority,
and many individuals have been put on probation.
The radical opposition even raised a question as to why the individuals
detained within the frameworks of the March 1 case are not granted
amnesty.
In my opinion, what has been done is something like a partial amnesty.
That’s to say, people continue to remain in the places of detention if
they were really involved in the acts of violence, caused physical or
material damage and undertook steps towards staging a coup d’état. In
all the other cases, the state made concessions.
I don’t think people have been kept under arrest for such a long20time
without substantiated reasons. The forces that now act from the
positions of releasing the individuals ‘detained for their political
views’ are tying to interfere in the internal affairs of our state
and teach us lessons of democracy.
Whereas, had all that happened in their own countries, they would
demand a much stricter punishment for the individuals whose ‘political
activity’ resulted in mass disorders, acts of violence and victims."
–Boundary_(ID_VvK5mYmG6ssmH5AVcxZ iQg)–