STEPAN DEMIRCHYAN: "THE CONSEQUENCES ARE NOT SURMOUNTED"

A1+
[03:38 pm] 24 December, 2008

"The grave consequences of March 1-2 are not addressed today. Today
Armenia faces socio-ecomic, moral and psychological crisis," Leader
of the People’s Party of Armenia (HZhK) Stepan Demirchyan announced
today when summing up the passing year.

The HZhK Leader congratulated political prisoner Alexander Arzumanyan
on his birthday and wished him an immediate release. Demirchyan
also condemned the violence against detainee Grigor Voskerchyan
and considered the trail of the case against seven as an utter
farce. Demirchyan said that the publicised eavesdropping of
Arzumanyan’s telephone talks further dispelled the alleged coup
attempts in Armenia.

Stepan Demirchyan noted that the artificial tension during the previous
court ruling might give grounds for the authorities to hold closed
sittings but, in his opinion, a case finding deep resonance in public
should be heard openly.

"The authorities had an opportunity to avoid tough assessments of
the PACE Monitoring Committee but they missed the chance." The HZhK
Leader meant PACE’s recommendation to release people jailed for their
political viewpoints.

Demirchyan thinks that the authorities should free the political
prisoners and start a dialogue with the opposition.

With regard to their further steps, Demirchyan reminded about the
ANC’s intention to hold a massive pan-national rally on March 1.

"The authorities themselves enhance rallies," said Demirchyan grounding
his statement for the fact that the authorities don’t give halls to
the Congress, address the existing problems, release the political
prisoners and make a fair inquiry into the March 1-2 riot.

Today Mr. Demirchyan made rather bleak predictions for 2009: the
international economic crisis has added to the existing problems. The
crisis will pose numerous hardships before Armenia.

In reply to a journalist’s question why the Congress qualified the
Monitoring Committee’s preliminary report as a victory and whether
they do not realise its negative outcome, Demirchyan said he would
avoid using the word "victory." Then he added that people rigging
the election, and hindering the democratic development of the country
should care for the aftermaths.

He noted that Armenia continues ignoring the PACE resolutions. "People
tampering the 2003 elections are still unpunished, A1+ hasn’t
been returned to the air, moreover, they cancelled tenders for TV
frequencies by 2010," concluded Demirchyan