SANGUINE RESPONSE: OPPOSITION GROUPS UNDAUNTED BY NSS CHIEF’S WARNING
POLITICS | 22.12.14 | 17:54
GOHAR ABRAHAMYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
RELATED NEWS
NSS chief warns against ‘irresponsible’ calls for violent overthrow
of government
Opposition members in Armenia have spurned the statements of director
of Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) Gorik Hakobyan who
warned over the weekend that ‘irresponsible’ calls for and attempts
of violating the constitutional order and overthrowing the government
will be prevented.
On December 20, speaking at a meeting held on the occasion of NSS
workers day, Hakobyan said that the NSS will ‘strictly prevent’
any illegal behavior aimed at breaking the constitutional order.
He also warned “certain opposition forces” against trying to involve
Diaspora Armenians in domestic political matters in Armenia.
The movement launched by three non-governing parties – the Prosperous
Armenia Party (PAP), the Armenian National Congress and Heritage –
announced earlier that headquarters would be opened in Armenian
communities abroad to try to mobilize the support of the nation’s
Diaspora to the political movement in Armenia.
PAP spokesperson Tigran Urikhanyan refused to comment directly on Gorik
Hakobyan’s statements. “We have our political course, our actions,”
Urikhanyan told ArmeniaNow.
Meanwhile Heritage Party Deputy Chairman Armen Martirosyan said that
the statement by the NSS chief proves the situation of the government
is so grave that even the NSS head has to come up with such statements.
“I treat this very normally, in our modern history there is no
precedent for such a situation, but I see no extraordinary situation
here, because our security service workers live by the same lifestyle
as the majority of our citizens and they know how awful our citizens’
life is,” Martirosyan said.
As for the Diaspora, Martirosyan thinks that the government sees the
Diaspora as merely a financial donor, but the opposition is not of
that opinion.
“If we all join the fight, the law-enforcement agencies will also
support us, moreover, the policy of the government toward our Diaspora,
who, as you can see, no longer makes any investments in Armenia,
even at the latest All-Armenian charity telethon only $12 million
was raised, which is very little, and this is their attitude to our
government,” the Heritage Party representative said, adding that
this ‘horrible situation’ can be solved only by means of changing
government, including by a rebellion, which is also a means mentioned
in the UN Declaration that Armenia is also a signatory to.
Varuzhan Avetisyan, a spokesman for the opposition Pre-Parliament
group (several members of the group were recently beaten by unknown
assailants, cars of a number of others were subjected to arson
attacks), told ArmeniaNow that they are not surprised about the
statement by the NSS head and will continue their active work.
“What is being done by the regime today, by Gorik Hakobyan and his
structure is national treason and a state crime. We must understand
that our country is occupied and we must liberate it, naturally, we
do not want force to be executed, and we try to do everything from
the formal legal point of view using methods of civil disobedience,
and this is from the very beginning labeled as violent methods by
Hakobyan, but he must relate this to himself, he himself and the
criminal organization called the regime that he is a member of, it
is typical of them to use violent methods and force to usurp power,
which they have already done several times in Armenia,” Avetisyan said.