Former Foreign Minister Aleksandr Arzumanian, former Deputy Prosecutor-General Gagik Jahangirian and more than a dozen other oppositions received a hero’s welcome as they walked onto a hillside square in the city center and addressed the enthusiastic crowd that gathered there.
Opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosian described their release as a “great victory” for his Armenian National Congress (HAK) and a “defeat” for the authorities. Ter-Petrosian again made a case for a prolonged opposition struggle for leadership change in the country, as opposed to a repeat of non-stop street protests that followed the February 2008 presidential election.
“It is thanks to your struggle and European structures that the authorities have set us free,” parliament deputy Miasnik Malkhasian said, summing up the main message of speeches delivered by the freed oppositionists. Malkhasian, who was accused of organizing last year’s post-election violence in the capital along with several other Ter-Petrosian loyalists, said they will now be “even more resolute” in challenging the government.
“We have regained freedom not because of the generosity and humanity of a regime that usurped power and stole the people’s vote but because of unprecedented pressure put by you, the popular movement, and efforts of international structures,” Jahangirian said.
He said the release of about two dozen opposition members remaining in prison will now be his “number one objective.” “We promise that we will have no rest and get no sleep as long as there is a single political prisoner left in Armenia,” added the controversial ex-prosecutor, who was sacked and arrested after publicly voicing support for Ter-Petrosian in the wake of the 2008 election.
Ter-Petrosian too demanded the liberation of the remaining “political prisoners” and said “nothing has changed in relations between the authorities and the public” as a result of the amnesty. “On the contrary, the continuing imprisonment of some political prisoners … has further deepened the already huge abyss between them,” he said.
Ter-Petrosian went on to launch fresh verbal attacks on President Serzh Sarkisian, branding the latter a “dictator” who will readily sell out to Armenia’s arch-foes. “One gets the impression that he is ready, even at the expense of humiliation and sacrifice of national interests, to make peace with the Turks and the Azerbaijanis but not with his own people,” he charged.
The HAK leader spent a large part of his speech lambasting more radical opposition elements that have been pushing for vigorous anti-government actions. “Many have accused of lacking determination,” he said without naming anyone. “Many have prodded us to take imprudent steps: around-the-clock rallies, indefinite sit-ins, pickets and so on … Had we followed the recommendations and calls of those ‘advisers,’ we would have had neither a powerful opposition organized by the HAK, nor liberated political prisoners today,”
“The main thing is not to tire, not to whimper, not to despair. Everything else is a matter of time,” added Ter-Petrosian.
The remarks were in line with Ter-Petrosian’s earlier repudiation of attempts at an anti-government “revolution” or “uprising” and his advocacy of “constitutional” methods of political struggle. Accordingly, he had scheduled the next HAK rally for September 18. It was brought forward because of the amnesty granted to about 30 oppositionists.
Ter-Petrosian said on Thursday that the HAK will likely stage another demonstration soon because of what he described as “very serious developments” expected in the Nagorno-Karabakh peace process. He did not specify whether the opposition alliance will seek to scuttle an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace accord sought by the U.S., Russian and French mediators.
The former Armenian president himself was forced to resign in 1998 after strongly advocating a compromise settlement with Azerbaijan.