DEPORTATION OF ZHIRAYR SEFILIAN TO MEAN THAT ARMENIAN AUTHORITIES ARE GOING TO MAKE TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS AND REMOVE ALL POSSIBLE OBSTACLES
Noyan Tapan
Jun 08 2007
YEREVAN, JUNE 8, NOYAN TAPAN. Members of a number of Armenian
organizations on June 7 organized a procession of protest and
demonstrations at the buildings of the OSCE Armenia Office, the
RA Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Armenian government. The
demonstrators – "Alliance" civil initiative (union of NGOs), members
of "Defence of Liberated Territories" NGO and a group of Internet
resourcse forum participants – submitted memoranda to the OSCE Minsk
Group co-chairs, the Armenian foreign minister and the Armenan prime
minister.
In their protest-memorandum the demonstrators stated that if the
package on the Karabakh problem solution to be presented at the
upcoming meeting of Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents in Saint
Petersburg "contains some unacceptable concessions to be made by
the Armenian side, and if the officials, including the president,
who negotiate on behalf of Armenia, agree to such a proposal of the
OSCE Minsk Group, then any attempt to put it into practice will meet
with counteraction of the Armenian people."
The protesters demanded "to stop the attempts to force unacceptable
concessions on the Armenian people." "At the same time, we demand
that the Karabakh conflict should not be used as an occasion for
increasing foreign military presence or violating the balance in the
region. There has been peace on the Armenian-Azerbaijani contact line
for 13 years. The deployment of peace keepers in the region and the
consequent actions would violate the statis quo. All this has nothing
to do with security, on the contrary, it poses a great danger to the
Armenian people and the whole region," the document reads.
In an application sent to the prime minister on the same day, the
demonstrators demanded that the coordinator of "Defence of Liberated
Territories" NGO Zhirayr Sefilian and his comrade Vardan Malkhasian
be released.
"The investigation is over and it is obvious to everybody that they
are innocent," is said in the application. According to the application
authors, "if this case goes to court, it will be the most shameful and
the first purely political trial (without any criminal components)
in the history of the Third Republic of Armenia." "All this causes
concern in the context of frequent talks about return of liberated
territories, recent statements of the OSCE Minsk Group, absence of
the adequate response from Armenian officials, and shameful attempts
to influence public opinion in the country.
If the talks about the possible deportation of Zhirayr Sefilain
realize, it will mean that the Armenian authorities are preparing
to make territorial concessions and before this they are trying to
remove all possible obstacles," is said in the application submitted
to the Armenian prime minister by the demonstators who gathered on
June 7 at the governmental buiding.