Vardan Oskanian condemns recent arrests in Armenia
Vardan Oskanian, a former Foreign Minister of Armenia, has condemned on his Facebook page the arrest of Alek Yenigomshyan and others. “When law-enforcement authorities in Armenia detained Alek Yenigomshyan, a leading member of the Founding Parliament radical opposition movement, I thought he would be set free immediately after the interrogation. But Yenigomshyan has been in custody for three days now. I think we need to express our anger and protest, demanding his immediate release not because of his being one of the true devotees of our nation, who in the 1970s and 80s fought for justice calling the attention of the entire world to the crime committed against Armenian people and losing his sight and arm as a result, but simply for keeping him in custody without grounds. During the daily demonstrations of the past ten days held in support of the Sasna Dzrer group Alek was the voice of moderation, who, with his cool, sober reasoning and calm behaviour tried to avert violence and reach a peaceful solution. Alek’s ‘guilt’ is perhaps that, like the overwhelming majority in Armenia, he wants to see radical changes in the country and thinks that this can be achieved only through newly formed legitimate government. Like Alek, I equally want to express my protest against the harassment against our citizens, including Armen Martirosyan, Levon Barseghyan and Arsinée Khanjian and all those who have received unfair treatment in the past several days and who are kept in custody,” Mr Oskanyan said in the post.
