On Saturday the newly re-elected president of the Armenian Democratic Party Stepan Demirchyan demanded from the authorities to release the political prisoners. “The demonstrations and marches of the opposition were exclusively peaceful, but the authorities chose the violence. Instead of fair investigation of the clampdown of March 1 the authorities put the blame on the opposition, originated several fake criminal cases, organized shameful court hearings, and the parliamentary committee took part in the process of hiding the essence of the events of March 1, which had been established to support the investigation of the case,” he said. “We are condemning such activity on part of the authorities and demanding to release Nikol Pashinyan, Sasun Mikayelyan and the other political prisoners. The current situation does not mean that the page of March 1 has been closed. It will be closed only when the responsible people for those events and culprits who are guilty in the death of those 10 people will be punished. The page of October 27 terror is not closed either. If the terror of October 27 did not happen, the murders of March 1 would not happen either,” said the ADP’s leader. Concerning the possibility of dialogue with the authorities Mr. Demirchyan said that free and fair elections would be the best option for a dialogue, which will take the country out of this situation. He also spoke of the social situation in the country and stressed that now about one million people are poor in Armenia. He believes the traditions established by the second president Robert Kocharyan in the social and economic sectors still continue. “The country is governed by the oligarchic system, and the authorities are the guarantee of this system,” said Demirchyn and added that the economic resources in Armenia are concentrated in the hands of one person. He believes corruption is growing rapidly and the upper levels of the power are sitting full in corruption. Concerning the relations between Armenia and Turkey he said that from the beginning it was clear that the football diplomacy would fail and the result is that Turkey is involved in the process of Karabakh conflict settlement now.
ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan made a speech during this summit too and he spoke about the important role of the NDP in the ANC movement. “For twelve years the NDP has been one of the permanent factors of the political sector. It has played a dominant role during the elections of 1998 and 2003, as well as the parliamentary elections of 1999. It has brought a great contribution to the movement which was born in 2007 and the formation of the Armenian National Congress,” said Ter-Petrosyan. He says that without the participation of the NDP the opposition movement and the ANC would not have the strength as it has now. Many people say that Levon Ter-Petrosyan was so kind to the NDP to praise it so much, which he usually does not do, because he is afraid that during the upcoming elections this party may go out of the congress and run in the elections separately. In conclusion of his speech he petitioned the NDP members to continue with the same efforts and finish the work together. Concerning the opinions that there are political powers in the congress which have different opinions and cannot be together Ter-Petrosyan said, “It is not a secret that the ANC evolves different parties from the variety of the political spectrum starting from liberals, socialists, and ending up with nationalists. Furthermore, the ANC declaration does not limit the freedom of these parties but guarantees their freedom of activities. What is the ideology that is keeping these powers together or making these parties to put aside their different ideologies and cooperate? This big goal is the incentive to save the country from being lost, which is to demolish the cleptocracy and restore the constitutional order. As for the difference between the ideologies, we should not forget that the biggest saint document of any state is the constitution and all ideologies are to serve that document. These are mere tools to enforce the constitution… Are there any higher goals in a country than the security of the people, rule of law, formation of civic society, human rights and civic freedoms protection, balance between the branches of the power, freedom of courts, immunity of ownership, peaceful co-living with neighbors, etc.? This is what is written in the constitution and what the ANC is going to protect… In other words these rumors that have been originated and circulated by the authorities are mere cheap speculation to stray people’s attention from the bigger challenges the country is going to face. We are telling them that they have taken the power with brute force and violence, and in answer they say that we don’t have ideology. We are saying that they are making violence, embezzling people and everything, and they are saying that we don’t have an agenda. If they think that with this poor strategy they will be able to break the decisiveness of the ANC or people’s faith in it, they are mistaken, and very soon they will see it,” said Ter-Petrosyan.
During the summit leaders of other parties from the ANC made speeches as well. Stepan Safaryan spoke about the Heritage party and remembered how the NDP was established in the political field with the help of Karen Demirchyan. The head of the ANM board Aram Manukyan said that he had always been surprised that this party is so intelligent, reliable and predictable.