It turns out that Geghamyan accepts the announcements made by some when they claim him to be a mine. However, according to the NU president, he is a mine installed not under the opposition, but rather the authorities. We will talk about mines and mine clearers later. Artashes Geghamyan held a conference yesterday to announce the decision made during the political party’s presidential session. The decision was made to boycott the whole process of the constitutional amendments referendum. They have not only called on their members to not go and participate in the referendum, but they have also called them back to the committees. Based on the decision made by NU presidency, the members of the territorial and local committees must not take part in the committee’s actions, including the process of the referendum and the summary of results. NU representative Zaven Pluzyan, who is a member of the Central Electoral Committee, will boycott any action taken by the committee connected to the referendum. As for the NU members who go against the decision made by the presidential staff of the party, go and take part in the referendum and help in summarizing the results, they will be subjected to “strict punishments by the political parties.” However, this doesn’t mean that NU will not do anything at all on referendum day. According to Artashes Geghamyan, they are going to control the referendum process through the means of observers and he emphasized the fact that they are not going to fight for anything during the referendum. Basically, the opposition party has once again kept itself away from minor issues. One part of the opposition, for example, the “18+8” union and the “Justice” alliance, have announced that they will gather in Yerevan on November 27, referendum day, and there is where they will stand up for their rights. Meanwhile, Artashes Geghamyan claims on stating the opposite. He calls on the members to stay where they are on referendum day. “We truly respect the decisions made by “18+8” union and the “Justice” alliance. But at the same time, we announce that we have our own strategy. Our strategy does not include organizing meetings,” said Geghamyan and added: “We are trying to choose the right path to take and differ from our colleagues.” The oppositionists will blame Geghamyan for being a mine after he put down the reputation of the opposition once again. But the leader of NU is not afraid of the accusations. On the contrary: he accepts that the representatives of NU are mines. “If NU is a mine, it is a mine under the authorities. I appreciate the mentality of Armenians. I carry out my actions in Armenia and everyone will know sooner or later that the strategy of NU members is the only and correct strategy. After all, everyone was convinced after the presidential elections on February 19, 2003,” said the political party leader who is proud of being called a mine. In response to our question as to when the political party will explode, Geghamyan replied: “The authorities are going to blow up themselves because they have reached the limit with their actions and a large part of people is going to outburst.” Despite the fact that the NU, as always, is afraid of fighting by organizing meetings, however, Artashes Geghamyan announced yesterday that they will lend a helping hand to their fellow oppositionists if necessary. If the oppositionist party “18+8” union stays true to its decision and attacks the presidential home, Geghamyan will help them out.
Artashes Geghamyan is not of the opinion that the constitutional amendments referendum is the last chance for the opposition to make change of power in the country. As a matter of fact, many are comparing that chance with the Waterloo battle. According to Geghamyan, the referendum is a usual political event. “Even if it is a battle for us, in that case, it is not even Waterloo. It is Borodin,” said Geghamyan as he made a historical excerpt and showed how much he knows about those historical events. He explained to journalists why he especially recalled the Borodin battle. “After that, we will retreat so as to attack the authorities, win and drive them away. What’s more, we will reestablish democracy.” Artashes Geghamyan also announced that if the constitutional amendments draft passes, not only will the opposition lose, but the state and democracy will also lose. Besides that, Artashes Geghamyan considers the authorities’ “yes” as the Pours victory and that is why the authorities, in Geghamyan’s words, “along with the defense minister Serj the Freer, are pretty unfortunate because they don’t reach success in whatever they do.”