“During the past several months the government has approached the legislation of Armenia to the legislation of some totalitarian state,” yesterday stated representative of the ANC Davit Shahnazaryan. According to him during the last year, starting from March 1, 2008 huge changes were made in the legislation aimed against the first president of Armenia. “The curfew, changes of the criminal code, laws on pickets and demonstrations directly prove that the government is trying to adapt the laws to the situation of March 1,” he said. In his opinion, as a result of these actions the internal political disaster of Armenia becomes tenser. The basic reason for that is that the cases of March 1 never appeared in the legal field and are still investigated with frauds. “By amending articles 225 and 300 of the criminal code the government revealed its goals. the government ceded its position by separating the "case of seven" because it realized that this outrageous trial may become a possibility for the defense to reveal the real perpetrators of March 1 assassinations,” Shahnazaryan said. Thus, according to him the government did everything to ensure that during the court trials there is no word said about assassinations, involvement of the army and police troops in the peaceful demonstrations of the people. But according to Shahnazaryan the government didn’t reach its ultimate goal. “In the near future we will show all these episodes via media and we have many facts to publicize,” he claimed. On the other hand, he believes that the struggle of the opposition gave results because only due to the pressure of the opposition the government ceded to amend article 300 of the criminal code, which refuses the accusation on usurpation of power. “By doing that they prove that their steps were illegal,” declared the ANC representative. He also thinks that the government surrendered by refusing that accusation. “But I don’t consider it success. I’d consider success the fact if they didn’t take political hostages with them,” emphasized Shahnazaryan. Shahnazaryan says the authorities were eager to reach a verdict under Article 300 of the Armenian Criminal Code, but they failed. Though PACE co-reporters Colombier and Prescott registered some progress in Armenia, welcomed the legislative amendments and recommended that they be applied towards people detained in connection to last year’s post-election unrest in Yerevan City, Shahnazaryan noted that government’s "smart resources in the Council of Europe are fully consumed". "Due to their provincial and primitive mentality the authorities will do their utmost to keep the political prisoners in the cells as long as they can," says David Shahnazaryan. As of the political prisoners Shahnazaryan has no doubt that soon the prisoners will be released and the government itself will appear in jail. He also spoke about the Armenian-Turkish relations and the possibility of opening the border. Reminder: According to the American Wall Street Journal there is a possibility that the border may be opened on April 16. Shahnazaryan also reminded the main 4 provisions of the agreement, which were publicized in the journal – opening of borders, mutual recognition of borders, establishment of diplomatic relations and establishment of a committee to discuss disputable issues. Shahnazaryan mentioned that they had always been against the creation of a special committee and the government should have at least suggested preparation of a certain document on the creation of such a committee. “If they don’t understand that much, then we are prompting them it’s not late yet,” said Shahnazaryan. According to him if after April 24 it becomes clear that Obama didn’t use the word genocide in his speech Turkey will become quite active in the regulation of the NKR conflict. “Turkey even has a great ambition to be included in the OSCE Minsk Group composition. And several American experts are even suggesting Obama to negotiate with France to include Turkey in the Minsk Group.” He also added that due to being illegitimate the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan only has to options to maneuver – issue of genocide and NKR conflict and he accepts great retreats in connection with these issues. When speaking of the upcoming mayoral elections Shahnazaryan mentioned that neither Gagik Beglaryan nor the Republican party are considered rivals for the ANC during the upcoming race. "The Armenian National Congress views the upcoming mayoral election as a means of struggle against organized crime," says Shahnazaryan. The ANC does not consider any force, including Serzh Sargsyan and Gagik Beglaryan, its contender at the election. "Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s rivals have always brought up violence and falsehood." Shahnazaryan says the Congress rules out a coup. The ANC will make the authorities call extraordinary presidential and parliamentary elections rather than plot a coup as coups always have adverse effects. The ANC representative says Levon Ter-Petrosyan stands good chances to win the election; he is calculated to have 75-80 percent of votes. Shahnazaryan says that the government has always tried to falsify elections. “They think that 30% of the voters will not show up and those are our votes and think that they’ll falsify 21% of the votes,” thinks Shahnazaryan. “We are running to save this society from dictatorship; we are running to destroy the current corrupt system,” says Shahnazaryan.
