A1+

NEVERTHELESS, THERE WAS ONE GOOD THING THIS YEAR
[08:44 pm] 27 December, 2008

Head of the ruling parliamentary faction Galust Sahakyan believes that
the most important event of the year was that Armenia elected a
president who is dedicated, experienced and instills hope in the
people.

`The events of March 1 are the tension and the approach that left a
trace in our reality, especially since we had deaths,’ Sahakyan went
on to say.

Didn’t the events have anything to do with the most important event
mentioned, that is, the presidential elections? In response, Galust
Sahakyan said:

`The two have nothing to do with each other. One of them is the result
of political processes, while the results of the other were determined
by whim.’

Sahakyan expressed his great desire to pass a law on `chatterboxes’
next year. As a rule, the ruling party doesn’t like the active role of
the minority factions and it is foreseen that the bill is `targeted’
first of all against `Heritage’.

`Galust Sahakyan could not have made an allusion to us because
`Heritage’ has never gossiped and obviously hasn’t made any decisions
that would hurt our national interests and statehood,’ told `A1+’ head
of the `Heritage’ faction Armen Martirosyan.

Armen Martirosyan weighs the year as very bad in terms of elections
and post-election developments.

`I oppose the declaration of a state of emergency; I don’t accept the
events on the morning of March 1 initiated by the administration. I
think that the reputation of our country went down due to the
statements and decisions made by different notable international
organizations and to wrap things up, the statement made by the PACE
Monitoring Committee according to which Armenia will lose voting
rights if political prisoners are not released by January 27,’ said
Martirosyan. He added that the year was also bad taking into account
the developments of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, the statements made
by the OSCE co-chairmen and different international organizations, as
well as the fact that Armenia’s positions and state interests are
rather weak.

Nevertheless, there was one positive thing this year for head of the
minority parliamentary faction:

`We really saw citizens fighting for their rights. We already have
citizens with a state mindset who must stand up for their statehood.’