We can consider the meeting held by the “Republic” political party a couple of days ago at the Matenadaran square as one of a kind. Despite the authorities’ apparent tries to cancel the political party’s meeting by not providing a hall, the planned event became a reality. This was the first time that the political party had held a meeting under an open sky since Armenia’s declaration of independence.
There were 523 members present at the meeting. Eleven members were elected as the “Republic” political party’s council, including Aram Sargsyan, Smbat Ayvazyan, Artak Zeynalyan, Gegham Harutyunyan, Suren Surenyants, Ara Ketikyan, Suren Abrahamyan, Sevak Saghatelyan, Vahan Babayan, Rafik Mkrtchyan and Hovik Arsenyan. Aram Sargsyan was elected president of the council. The members confirmed the symbol of the political party and the whole idea of the meeting. The symbol of the “Republic” political party is the Armenian decorative circle with apricot color shades. If we take into consideration the fact that everyone today is talking about turning the constitutional amendments referendum into a start for a revolution, then we can presume that the symbol for a revolution in Armenia will be the color of apricot. Aram Sargsyan himself had come to the meeting wearing an apricot color tie. “Don’t confuse the colors. This is not orange, this is apricot color. Anyone who knows something about colors can tell you the difference,” said Aram Sargsyan during a press conference while talking about his tie and the symbol. Sargsyan also added that he had found the apricot color tie with difficulty. “This is the color of revolution and I hope that we will have orange tents along with wearing orange t-shirts. On that day (he means November 27 -A.G.), we will also have lights and candles which will symbolize the brightness of our future,” said Aram Sargsyan. Sargsyan thanked the international organizations for forcing the authorities to let the meeting take place because this meeting can later become a good tool for the political party to finally get rid of the authorities. “The opposition has turned against the constitutional amendments referendum. Despite our own propaganda, we will be united in the end. We will gather in Yerevan after the referendum and the people will make their decision there,” said the leader of the party.
Aram Sargsyan concluded his speech by saying the following: “God bless the Republic of Armenia. God bless all of us. Amen.”
P.S. By the way, the leader of the “Republic” political party Aram Sargsyan felt bad that they had not been offered a hall to hold the meeting, but the rest of the oppositionists actually liked the idea of holding the meeting in a new place. President of the National Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan encouraged all the oppositionists to follow the example of the party and organize meetings under an open sky. “This is much more pleasant and democratic,” said V. Manukyan. President of the “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan is also in favor of this. In his words, in times like these we need to hold meetings under an open sky. Is it possible for the “New Times” political party to follow the example of “Republic” political party and hold their meeting on November 2 under an open sky? We asked Aram Karapetyan for the answer: “No, we are going to hold closed meetings and they are going to be bigger.”