Today the eighth congress of the Yerkrapah Union of Volunteers will be held. There is a lot of tension among the members of the organization. The reason is that the chair of the YUV Manvel Grigoryan has decided not to include in the organization’s board those members of the board, who’d joined the pan-Armenian movement during the presidential lections 2008 and were arrested or persecuted after the events of March 1. According to our information Manvel Grigoryan has already submitted the list of people, who’d today become new members of the board. This list doesn’t include the names of the people, who joined the opposition. The list doesn’t include deputy-chair of the YUV Myasnik Malkhasyan. During a phone conversation with us the latter told us that nobody had informed hi to take part in the congress. It means that the current deputy-head of the organization is not participating in today’s congress. Does this mean that under these circumstances Malkhasyan may decide to deflect from the YUV? Yesterday he didn’t wish to answer this question and speak about the congress. All he said was that Yerkrapahs are called the people, who have done something for the fatherland and not the ones, who are elected. “Later life will put everything in its place. The most important thing is that we all comply with the commands of Sparapet Vazgen Sargsyan,” said Malkhasyan. According to our information M. Grigoryan justified his decision with the fact that many of the YUV members hadn’t visited the office of the organization since they got released from jail. That is the reason why he got offended and decided not to include them in the board of the organization. On the other hand, when these people were in jail the other members of the YUV, who were free, didn’t quite struggle for the freedom of their counterparts. And this is how the latter explain the reason why they haven’t attended the YUV office when they were released from jail. But in general, the attitude towards the YUV leading board and specifically Manvel Grigoryan has changed after the events of March 1. During the pre and post election periods people were speaking that although covertly but Grigoryan supports the pan-national movement. According to the rumors of that period Grigoryan decided to keep the YUV away from the Armenian National Congress after the events of March 1. And the result of that was that the authorities allowed the General’s son Karen Grigoryan be elected mayor of Echmiadzin. Months after the events of March 1 even a joke was being circulated, which said, “if the change of government is close keep it away from Manvel.” According to certain information Grigoryan was instructed by the RA authorities not to include the loyalists of the ANM in the new board of the YUV. Moreover, the government for years and even now are making projects and plans to fragment the YUV or to turn their balance to their side. And although this organization was originally established to be a depoliticized structure but it has always indirectly participated in the political life of Armenia. The government has always taken into account the role and opinion of the YUV at least partly. And this is the reason why they have tried to disarm this organization. Yesterday an ANC member and chairman of the Republic party Aram Sargsyan told us that the YUV has so many branches all over Armenia that the number exceeds the chapters of the Republican Party and the Prosperous Armenia. “And these are not mere party offices. People always visit the YUV chapters; they hold discussions. And these are not just offices with billboards on the doors. These offices work all the time and not just from election to election. The current YUV doesn’t just include war veterans. Many young people have become members of this structure. This is a quite powerful organization,” added Sargsyan. It means that this is the reason why the government has always tried to have control of the YUV especially now when the NKR conflict resolution entered a very important phase. And it’s not excluded that the average members of the YUV and war participants revolt against Armenia and the authorities of Armenia. Sargsyan also added that he was planning to participate in the congress. According to our information Mkrtich Sapeyan, who was released from jail two weeks ago, was also going to partake in the congress. By the way, during the conversation with us Aram Sargsyan also spoke about the speech of Serzh Sargsyan in London; his message addressed to the Turkish president Abdullah Gul. In the opinion of the opposition politician, although the speech of S. Sargsyan was inspiring but contained quite serious hazards. “First of all, there was no need to reach London to make a speech like that. He could have done it here. I see the chores of the speech and the message and I seriously see dangers here. This speech showed that the current president also envisions this danger. The impression was that this person was mostly trying to justify himself. I say this with pity that this way or another it is Serzh Sargsyan that represents the country. In this speech there was also contradiction because the government says that the NKR conflict resolution cannot be linked with the Turkish-Armenian rapprochement Sargsyan meanwhile says that the normalization of the Turkey-Armenia relations will conduce to the NKR conflict resolution. This means that he automatically connects these two separate issues. The difference is the following: The Turks are saying first resolve the NKR conflict and then we’ll open the border. And we are saying open the border and then we will resolve the NKR conflict. And the impression is that there are no questions relating to the resolution of the issues. All needs to be done is figure out the sequence of the two processes,” says Sargsyan.
