The seventh attempt to restart talks between the Armenian opposition and the country’s authorities has failed. The opposition demanded pre-term elections, saying that the ruling regime is not legitimate. Eventually, representatives of the opposition Armenian National Congress decided not to come to the final meeting, as the authorities refused to free opposition activist Tigran Arakelyan from prison.
On August 9 seven activists of the Armenian National Congress were arrested after a fight with policemen. Six of them were released by the court, but Tigran Arakelyan, who was charged with violence against members of the law-enforcement agencies, had to stay in prison. The opposition accused the authorities of increasing pressure on the Armenian National Congress and persecution of opposition activists.
According to Levon Zurabyan, the Armenian National Congress’s representative at the opposition’s talks with the authorities, the Armenian administration is trying to use the Arakelyan case to blackmail the opposition’s leaders. He also said that the fact that the authorities don’t want to free Arakelyan shows that he is a political prisoner and that the court isn’t unbiased.
At the same time, a representative of the ruling coalition, David Arutunyan, said that the opposition’s decision to cease talks is a ‘political démarche.’ When asked about the prospects of dialogue between the opposition and the country’s authorities, he said “one cannot dance alone and it’s impossible to carry on dialogue alone as well.” Another member of the ruling Republican Party, Gamlet Arutunyan, noted that the decision to release Arakelyan from prison would show other opposition activists that they are allowed to violate the law.
The ruling coalition has even made a statement saying that dialogue between the authorities and the opposition is a political process that shouldn’t be influenced by such cases. “The Arakelyan case is purely a legal issue. We are ready to work hard in order to solve the existing problems and look forward to reasonable proposals,” the statement reads.
The opposition’s response was that the talks were arranged to find a way out of the political crisis before September and no progress has been made yet, leading the opposition’s leader, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, to announce that the process could be called fruitless.
This means that the dialogue, started in order to stop the evident political crisis in Armenia, has led to nothing. The attempt has failed, as the parties haven't managed to avoid mutual accusations and find a compromise. In such circumstances all foreign problems may seem less important than the unfolding political crisis in the country.
Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to VK
