Heritage party leader explains reasons behind his 15-day fast

 April 26, 2011 - 15:44 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Leader of Heritage party Raffi Hovannisian issued a statement, explaining reasons behind his 15-day fast.

The statement reads as follows: “The complete irresponsibility of a large part of our national-political stratum compelled me last month to go on a hunger strike, an extreme form of political protest.

There is no need to explain to anyone the utter tragedy of our nation’s current state of affairs. It is fundamentally evident to the political class itself as well as to the whole nation. As an ordinary citizen and a public figure, I can and will no longer reconcile myself with such a situation. Taking into account the presumption of respect toward my political colleagues, I began my protest solely on the basis of the already manifest Demand which our people had long put forward—in order to spare their self-esteem and still cherishing the hope that conscience had not abandoned these people once and for all.

Over the entire course of my “Fast for Freedom,” I ultimately became convinced that a significant segment of our “elite” has neither conscience nor common sense. They carelessly pass by and indifferently look upon all those hardships which our people continue to endure. They actually believe that it is possible to abuse the people’s trust, to test their patience, and to disregard their rights and human dignity for years on end, in a word, endlessly to pollute the source of their own welfare.

Ever since the sounding of my alarm, tens of thousands of my fellow citizens expressed their solidarity, and so today I have the right to speak for most of them. Distinguished colleagues of the political field—that is, the ruling coalition, the incumbent president, pro-government forces, and even some in the opposition—you wished to know about my priority political demands? Here they are:

First, I demand that a Constitutional Congress be convened in order to author and adopt a new Basic Law for the Republic of Armenia. Our nation’s magna carta must be cultivated and confirmed by the People and not by a National Assembly of obvious repute […].

Second, I demand that Armenia recognize the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court. […] Third, I demand from the Armenian president that by withdrawal of signatures he declare the Armenian-Turkish protocols null and void, and that he formally recognize the Mountainous Karabagh Republic (MKR) within its constitutional frontiers. It requires no proof that Armenia’s “Madrid-based” recognition of an interim status for Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan, pending conduct of a new referendum, contradicts the letter and spirit of MKR’s Constitution. Refusal of this demand will be tantamount to ignoring the will of the people of Artsakh.”