The speaker of the parliament Hovik Abrahamyan has applied to president Serzh Sargsyan with a petition to grant amnesty to political prisoner, former MP Sasun Mikayelyan. “Joining the recommendation of the coalition powers and being worried about the health conditions of our former colleague Sasun Mikayelyan, I am asking you to discuss the possibility of granting amnesty to him,” writes Abrahamyan’s letter. This means that the authorities are making one step toward the opposition and they are opening the “half-open door” as the leader of the opposition described during the rally of April 28. If the processes continue this way, the political prisoners may be released even sooner than the one month term set by Levon Ter-Petrosyan. This will be certainly the biggest positive thing in the political and civic sector of Armenia during the past three years. It doesn’t matter how it may happen. The problem is that what answers the authorities and first of all the ANC may give to the political prisoners. The health conditions of Sasun Mikayelyan has worsened and even become critical minimum three times during the past three years but the authorities have not been so kind to him. Meantime the ANC has periodically raised the issue of releasing the political prisoners but the authorities have not even tried to do so. The opposition’s opinion that now the pressure of the society is bigger is not justified because a couple of years ago the national movement was even stronger. Anyway it will be much better to develop dialogue between the opposition and authorities in conditions when the political prisoners are free than in conditions when the may “trade” the issue of political prisoners. It concerns both of the political powers.
