It was an obvious alarm that the situation has gone beyond the limits: Arsinée Khanjian
The first public step of “Justice in Armenia” initiative was the petition launched on September 21, accompanied by the statement that immediate changes are necessary to implement in Armenia. Canadian Armenian actress, producer Arsinée Khanjian told about this reporters today.
In her words, the main group is comprised of prominent cultural figures of the Diaspora and Armenia. According to Arsinée Khanjian thousands of Armenians joined the petition and expressed their solidarity.
“Of course, we, the group members, are linked to Armenia with rather durable threads out of our cultural activity, however, for years we also had the opportunity to follow formation of the Republic of Armenia, domestic and foreign policy processes. For us Armenia’s independence in Diaspora has been a crucial victory, gift, realization of a dream, for which maybe we, as individuals, at that moment failed to have a big investment, however, we’ve always lived with the realization of supporting this newly-born country to stand on its feet not only in the field of culture, but also as an independent, sovereign democratic state.
Unfortunately, the snapshot is becoming more and more concerning, economic indices, the political unhealthy atmosphere, human rights violations and absence of justice, finally, migration caused a big concern in the Diaspora as well,” Arsinée Khanjian said.
She stated that this year was particularly hard and bothering: days of the April war, unconditional love and devotedness of the young men, made us reassess our views and steps, Armenia’s presence and future are estimated by the price of the lives of these young men, the state they defended should be worth that love.
“Probably as a result of this very reassessment the developments in summer took place, when citizens’ anger led to armed actions in our country. I consider, it was an obvious alarm, that the situation has gone beyond its limits and there is a necessity to undertake immediate reforms in the country. Personally for me, of course, my experience of socializing with the Police and the dominating repressive atmosphere, full with fear was very important to comprehend, that time has come to have practical participation in Armenia’s development, use our resource in the Diaspora, connections and experience to be next to Armenia and express their claim for justice.”
Arsinée Khanjian said that in the statement issued on September 21 clear issues have been singled out and they called on Armenia’s state institutions to ameliorate crucial links, and to initiate observation mission as possible practical participation, purpose of which is bringing our compatriots from the Diaspora and provide them the opportunity to participate in Armenia’s political processes, have their investment in building a democratic, rule of law country.
She supposes that the Government change, appointment of the new PM was a gleam that efforts are made to generate reformist steps in Armenia. However, in her words, proposals aren’t moving forward by clear steps.
By Ofelya Hovhannisyan
