“It is hard to say what will be the behavior of the political prisoners after granting amnesty to them. However, I don’t know any case in the history when after amnesty detainees don’t agree with it and stay in prisons. The history of Armenia has shown that the authorities are releasing political prisoners when they see that there is no danger from the opposition any more. If they feel that there is such danger, they will not release them,” said Avetik Ishkhanyan, the head of the Helsinki commission in Armenia, concerning the events of March 1 and the possibility of releasing the political prisoners. The head of Helsinki Association, Michael Danielyan does not exclude the possibility that the prisoners may not accept the amnesty granted by the authorities and continue staying in cells and demand justice. “There has been such case in the history; when Gorbachov came to power he granted amnesty to political prisoners. Some of them accepted the amnesty, and the others refused,” said Mr. Danielyan.
