There were some unique moments during the meeting organized by the “Justice” alliance and oppositionist political parties at the “Artsakh” fountain in Vanadzor on November 17. The meeting started pretty late (the organizers of the meeting apologized to the public, claiming that it was due to the heavy traffic and the warnings of the “police”), and until it started people were enjoying listening to contemporary Armenian music. One of the women participating in the meeting saw a promenading deputy and asked her friend: “Aren’t you going to invite him to tango with you?”
While the “Inheritance” political party activists were collecting signatures for “recognizing Raffi Hovhannisyan’s Armenian citizenship starting from 1991”, a resident of Vanadzor got interested and said: “Why don’t they recognize him as a citizen of Armenia?” “If dual citizenship passes, they will,” said another who did not take into consideration the fact that dual citizenship will pass only if the constitutional amendments pass-amendments which Raffi Hovhannisyan is not in favor of. One of the elderly residents of Vanadzor participating in the meeting called the authorities “monsters, devils, egoists” and called on the people to “not leave their homes on referendum day”. He was saying this after he had praised the mayor of Vanadzor who is also a representative of the authorities, days before the local government elections. How can we interpret the “structure of the opposition”? This was probably what one person was talking to about with his friend when he said: “They come, encourage us at the meetings and then they give us 1000 dram on Election Day and if we don’t accept that money, they will sell their souls to the devil.” As for Nyura Hovsepyan, who is a sworn member of the National Autonomous Union since 1989, he asked to publish his opinion in the newspaper and claimed that he is for “Hayrikyan’s constitutional amendments packet” (which has been included in the proposed constitutional amendments draft) and he is also in favor of dual citizenship due to the fact that he has relatives living abroad. He is also for “organizing a velvet revolution” in Armenia-just like Georgia. Just like many, he is also convinced that despite the people’s participation, they will “make the constitution pass”.