It is very surprising that Raffi Hovhannisyan and Vazgen Manoukyan were allowed to organize a civic meeting in November in a place, where oppositionists are usually not allowed to set foot in, i.e. in the governmental reception hall. The last time when some oppositionists were allowed to appear here was in 2000, when the government came to an agreement with oppositional powers to make a coalition during the term of then prime minister Aram Z. Sargsyan. As for Raffi Hovhannisyan and Vazgen Manoukyan, they used to say that they couldn’t find a hall in Armenia that would have places for 1.200 people. There are rumors that the head of the Russian Armenians’ Union, Ara Abrahamyan has close relations with the two politicians and has decided to support the oppositional powers. It is said that Ara Abrahamyan asked the authorities to give them this hall and in fact Vazgen Manoukyan and Raffi Hovhannisyan (they are known as pro-Western politicians) have started making agreements with Russia too. Furthermore, maybe some groups in Russia have interests here too.
