Armen Ashotyan’s speech, vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), a political prisoner, during the discussion of the issue of allowing him to participate in the congress of the largest European political family, the European People’s Party (EPP).
Political prisoner, RPA vice-chairman Armen Ashotyan continues to answer citizens’ questions from “Nubarashen” CEI. Marat Hovsepyan’s question – Mr. Ashotyan, I am writing to you from Cologne. I respect you very much. Let me tell you, the traitor has no support. His meeting here proved that. Everyone rejected him. My question is this: will you become the Prime Minister of RA if the people demand it, and what will you do to improve the situation?
Narek Samsonyan, the political prisoner addressed to the people from Armavir State Penitentiary, which is presented below.
Now, Vazgen and I, media practitioners, whose podcast has been aired for a year, with about 90 episodes and with more than 100 guests, have been imprisoned for two months for calling the government officials and the Prime Minister himself “son of a bitch”. Let me formulate my question. Madam Ambassador, which type of administration is characterized by such permissiveness? Do you think this behavior is typical of democracy or steadily developing authoritarianism? What is your assessment?
A few days ago, the prestigious “RAND” corporation based in the U.S. published on its website an article by Joe Haberman and Paul Cormarie. The analytical piece was titled “The US cannot guarantee Armenia’s security despite threats from Azerbaijan, but it can help”.
It must be noted that the list of the political prisoners officially declared by a number of well known international organizations, which includs Armen Ashotyan, Narek Malyan, Mamikon Aslanyan and our other commrades in battle, who are kept in prison, has been expanded hearafter to include Narek Samsonyan’s and Vazgen Saghatelyan’s names. We also find it necessary to underscore, that in the case of Narek Samsonyan, the arrest was carried out with the use of disproportionate force, and in some cases with sadism.
This morning, after leaving his apartment, several police officers attacked Narek Samsonyan, founder of the AntiFake.am website, founder of the “Civic Consciousness” NGO, co-author and host of the “Imnemnimi” podcast, from behind in the parking lot and using disproportionate brute force knocked him to the ground.
This is not the first time that autocratic Azerbaijan has come under scrutiny for handing out billions of dollars in bribes to Western officials to ignore its massive violations of the human rights of its own population and Artsakh Armenians.
“In a 2018 interview, Ibrahim Kalin, then the spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, confirmed that they had received a pitch for a documentary about Erdogan around the same time Stone was in Turkey. ‘We are looking at it, we are evaluating it,’ he said,” OCCRP reported.
Today, in Yerablur Military Pantheon, on behalf of the third President of RA, the Chairman of the RPA Serzh Sargsyan a tribute was paid in memory and a wreath was laid at the tomb of the RA state and political figure, the National Hero of Armenia, the Hero of Artsakh Vazgen Sargsyan on the occasion of his 65th birth anniversary.
