WILL SERZH SARGSYAN PERSUADE DIASPORA?

02:59 pm | September 30, 2009 | Politics
utiun

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutiun will march from
Republican Square to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial on October 9 in
protest against the pre-signed Armenian-Turkish Protocols.

The Party has already notified the Yerevan City Hall about the march
which will be followed by a rally in the Tsitsernakaberd.

ARF stalwarts continue the sit-in and hunger-strike in front of the
Government building and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"We are much concerned about Serzh Sargsyan’s upcoming visit to
Armenian communities," say the strikers.

The Party thinks Serzh Sargsyan will not be able to convince the
Diaspora to endorse the Protocols without ARF’s proposals.

"The Protocols are inadmissible in their present form. The authorities
can say that they have supporters in the Diaspora but our compatriots
will not accept the documents. Diaspora’s core political forces –
ARF, SDHK and RAK have already voiced their negative opinion on
the Protocols in a joint statement," says ARF’s Supreme Body member
Romik Manukian.

ARF MP Ruzan Arakelian says Serzh Sargsyan’s decision to make a
Pan-Armenian tour is dangerous though unprecedented.

"No reasonable person will be persuaded to endorse the documents,"
says Mrs. Arakelian.

ARF members, historian Movses Margarian thinks during the visit to
the Armenian Diaspora, Serzh Sargsyan will gather embassy employees
to express a general opinion on the documents.

"But it cannot be the opinion of the whole Diaspora. I think that
the visits are artificial and will effect no radical changes," notes
the historian.