Once Plutarkhos said that if you want people to listen to you you should either speak briefly or speak about interesting things. And as Artashes Geghamyan said during the press conference, since there was nothing interesting about us, he had to periodically speak also about donkeys.
About the authorities
The leader of the NU thinks that the rally that was organized on February 28 was not organized well and is very dangerous for us. Even more, he said that students were informed about the place of meeting to participate in the rally one week in advance. “As a result of this the authorities understood that people are disappointed and will never follow their initiative”, said Mr. Geghamyan. These days Mr. Geghamyan has been contemplating the danger facing our country and has been trying to find a solution. And as he said he didn’t hesitate to study the statistical information of Azerbaijan for several days. “I am not Azeri as the governmental press writes, but I am trying to warn them and make sure they (the authorities, L.S.) get the message”, said Geghamyan and added that in two years the budget of Azerbaijan will be increased up to 6,5 billion dollars. “As for our budget, during the parliamentary discussions the MPs were crying in happiness that at least out budget reached 1 billion. Don’t you think this calls for serious action?” asked the head of the NU. “As for these authorities, they are doing their best to close the party of Raffi Hovhannisyan and take the bags back from Aram Karapetyan. So what are they looking for? Are they looking for the key with the help of which the highway of Parakar was going to be closed? He didn’t mean that. He meant that people were disappointed and would not let them run away from this country… OK, how could they turn our foreign affairs into gambling?”
About Karabakh
During the press conference yesterday, Mr. Geghamyan disappointed the people who thought that Kocharyan and Serj Sargsyan have just now decided to “sell Karabakh”. “Robert and Serj have already sold Karabakh and their relatives are now building lodges for blacks in California”, said the NU leader. According to him people have not fought back against these authorities during the past eight years only because of the fact that they promised to solve the Karabagh conflict honestly and in fair conditions. And only in eight years A. Geghamyan could understand that “only two peeople and their intimate friends could hook the public”. But anyway as Mr. Geghamyan said there are solutions for this too. “We must understand that our future depends on us, and we must understand that nowadays, people don’t start a revolution not only based on good conditions or lack of political will, but because of the fact that they understand that there is danger from outside, but it has already been eight years that they use this factor for their own purposes. So I want to inform the international community that they shouldn’t expect any fair solution of the Karabagh conflict from these authorities, because in 1998 they said that there was a better solution and this solution was going to be made soon. Eight years have passed, and year by year we feel that our situation is getting worse”, said Geghamyan.
Some journalists asked questions during the conference. For instance one of the participants asked Geghamyan why he petitioned everyone not to make the situation worse in 2003 and advised them to let the authorities “enjoy” what they had done. In response to this question, Mr. Geghamyan said that in 2003 the geopolitical situation was different than in 2005 and it will be different in 2007 as well. “We were not so strong in 2003 and didn’t have so many organizations as now”, tried to justify Mr. Geghamyan. Answering to the question as to what kind of approach the NU will have in case of war Mr. Geghamyan said, “What we must do in case of war? In case of war we must win the war and must banish these authorities from here. This is what we will do.”
“Good job”, Alex
Most of the press conference was dedicated to the announcement made by the head of the national TV company Alexan Harutyunyan, saying that the European Union of Broadcasting Companies had made an announcemment that broadcasting the parliamentary sessions once three weeks is a violation of speech freedom. “You should ask yourself whether this parliament represents the public or not. In spite of the electoral fraud anyhow it represents the public. Are they trying to take this from us too? So why do the Europeans keep silence when they see that there is no company to broadcast live parliamentary sessions?” said Mr. Geghamyan. Then Mr. Geghamyan spoke about the OSCE Yerevan office head Mr. Priakhin and said, “Please tell the European Union of Broadcasting Companies that with this letter they are playing with the reputation of that institution, because when the authorities used to do everything not to allow the opposition broadcast anything we didn’t know anything about them. We didn’t feel that there was such an institution when in 2003 I wasn’t allowed to speak on national TV company. So where was that union? Alexan Hrutyunyan is surprising me, he has always felt the danger, doesn’t he feel a revolution coming? Why does he do that? He should answer them and say no, I will let Geghamyan make a live speech and will not listen to Gevorg Gevorgyan, Serj Sargsyan and Robert Kocharyan any more. In this case he will both gain our trust and will be able to relax in the tenure of these authorities and in the coming ones. Even more, in this case the Europeans will say, “Good job Alex, now we see that you are really democratic”. This is how it should be”.