Founding Parliament members ready to use counterattack tactics on May 30 (video)
Members of the “Centennial without the regime” opposition movement today convened a press conference to thank their friends, supporters and media representatives who helped their release from prison. Garegin Chukaszyan, Chairman of the Founding Parliament movement, said the acting regime was unable to repress their movement even after charging them with plotting mass disturbances on April 24. Mr Chukaszyan says the movement has gained greater popularity after the recent developments around the FP members. “We were unable to bring down the regime. Similarly, the authorities were unable to bring us down,” he said. The Founding Parliament is going to cooperate with different forces in Armenia in order to unseat the authorities. “However, we shall not cooperate with the forces who were involved in the tragic events of March 1, 2008. We can cooperate with Nikol Pashinyan but we cannot have anything to do with Tigran Urikhanyan,” added Zhirayr Sefilyan. He says by arresting them, the authorities aimed at pressurizing their friends. “They [authorities] were able to disrupt the mobilization, since we were in prison, but they were unable to thwart our progress,” Sefilyan said. Speaking about their rally to be held at Liberty Square on May 30, the FP members said they would apply counterattack tactics but declined to reveal more details. Speaking about the constitutional reforms initiated by Serzh Sargsyan, Zhirayr Sefilyan said the referendum on constitutional reforms would be a failure. “Serzh himself is a failure,” he said in conclusion. On May 4, the Prosecutor General’s Office ordered the release of five members of the Founding Parliament political movement: its chairman, Garegin Chukaszyan, founding member Zhirayr Sefilyan, and Varuzhan Avetisyan, Pavel Manukyan, and Gevorg Safaryan. The activists had to sign a pledge not to leave Yerevan for the duration of pending investigation into “mass disturbances.” On April 9, the Special Investigation Service charged all five men with planning a mass disturbance and preparation to commit a crime. The authorities claimed that the men plotted to provoke street violence in Yerevan during the April 24 commemoration of the 100-year anniversary of the Armenian genocide. The group had applied and received approval from the Yerevan municipality to hold the peaceful rally near the Erebuni Library, in Yerevan’s southeast district. However, on April 10, the Kentron Nork-Marash District Court in Yerevan approved the investigation’s request to send all five men to pretrial custody.
