The Armenian Yerkrapah Union of Volunteers will hold a general meeting in the government hall today. It will be the first general meeting of this organization since the presidential election 2008 and the events of March 1. Following the presidential election 2008 many members of the Yerkrapah Union of Volunteers joined the opposition movement, as a result of which many of them were arrested. Some of them are still in the prison. Since that time the YUV has not come up with any official announcements concerning the events and the persecution of the union members. During the past two years the head of the union Manvel Grigoryan has from time to time made some statements, the meaning of which is that they can go to prison if there is a need. During today’s general meeting the YUV will definitely make a decision not to include the ones who advocated for former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s candidacy during the presidential election 2008 in the board of the organization. According to our information, the president of the YUV, general Manvel Grigoryan has already informed the members of the union the names of those members of the organization who are going to be included in the board. Incumbent vice president of the union Myasnik Malkhasyan has not even received an invitation to take part in the general meeting. Certainly this process is controlled by the authorities and the goal of controlling the process is to make the YUV more controllable in the current phase of Karabakh conflict negotiations. In this case the YUV will play almost the same role in the society as the Public Chamber. The difference is the fact that the members will not represent the “intelligentsia” but will be fighters for the motherland. What is the difference though?
