Political prisoner Nicol Pashinyan, who was released from Artik penitentiary three days ago, returned to active politics. He already yesterday managed to participate in the session of the political board of the Armenian National Congress. As Pashinyan mentioned to the Radio Liberty there are no contradictions between his approaches and the ones of the ANC. To the question what he thinks about the adopted policy of the ANC that is to play a “slow and smart chess game” Pashinyan responded, “One of the advantages of the ANC is that it doesn’t speak about revolution. It holds revolution. The revolution in my understanding has always been the change in the spirit and mentality of people. For me revolution is no guillotine. For me revolution is the change of thinking, which will cause the life, which stipulates the constitution of Armenia. I don’t agree with any attempt of separate me from the ANC. I am a representative of a political team and within that team I can affect the decision-making process and to a certain extent I participate in the process of adoption of decisions.” The next demand of the ANC is the conduct of early parliamentary and presidential elections. The previous three demands, as the ANC representatives say, the government has fulfilled. The release of Sasun Mikaelyan and his release inspire Pashinyan with confidence that by-elections will also take place. “So why did the government do what people wouldn’t ever believe – I mean our freedom? The government has one peculiarity. When the time comes the government officials come to common sense regardless how far they might be from reality,” says Nicol Pashinyan.
