ARFD: WE STRUGGLE AGAINST TURKS

Information-Analytic Agency NEWS.am
Oct 21 2009
Armenia

The opponents of the Armenia-turkey normalization process urge
the Armenian people to unite and torpedo the ratification of
Armenia-Turkish Protocols or get them amended, Artusha Shahbazyan,
Secretary of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun)
(ARFD) parliamentary faction, told a press conference. He said that
the people must rally round matters of national importance now.

"Why should we unite with the Armenian National Congress? What is
the purpose? Remove Serzh Sargsyan from the chair and seat Levon
Ter-Petrosyan on it?" Shahbazyan asked? He pointed out that the
President’s resignation is not the ARFD’s priority task nor is the
party seeking power.

The party has not yet decided on its further steps to achieve this
important aim. The priority task is to get the RA Constitutional
Court to return a verdict of "unconstitutional" on the Protocols. If
the efforts fail, actions of protest during the ratification process
must be organized.

The party does not lose hope. "For 120 years we have been struggling
for national interests and we will go on. We must struggle. We are
struggling against Turks, while the authorities and the Armenian
National Congress are struggling against us," Shahbazyan said.

Responding to NEWS.am’s question s to whether the ARFD is urging the
people "to struggle against Turks", Shahbazyan admitted he meant the
struggle against the Armenian authorities. "The present situation makes
us accept the sad reality: the Armenian and Turkish authorities are
acting on the same plane," he said. Shahbazyan also said that the ARFD
is not yet "shutting the door" for a dialogue with the authorities,
but when the party "shut[s] the door, a problem will arise, and the
issue of change of power and structural reforms may be raised."