Thursday, September 26 2013

Heritage Party has come out with a statement assessing the incident in
Meghri as Russia's gross interference into internal affairs Armenia.  On 25 September the Russian frontier guards
wearing FSS uniform detained Zaruhi Postanjyan, Armenian MP from Heritage
opposition party, while she traveled to Meghri accompanied by other
representatives of the Party to organize election campaign in the
single-mandate constituency No.38 in Syunik region. 

 

According to the statement, FSS officers detained and
searched the cars of the Heritage Party representatives without any legal
substantiation. They let the cars leave only after Z. Postanjyan showed her
certificate of the Armenian parliamentarian. Heritage Party says in the
statement that the Russian frontier guards were accompanied by the Armenian
servicemen. The same day, the cars of the Party were detained while driving
back from Meghri. Postanyan says that FSS officers behaved very crudely and
even seized and broke the camera from David Hakobyan, a member of the Party's
Campaign Headquarters. Afterwards, a high-ranking officer, who introduced
himself as Colonel Mirzoyev, apologized to Postanjyan for the behavior of the
frontier guards and offered compensation for the broken camera. He explained
that frontier guards searched an Iranian drug smuggler.

 

Postanyan refused to take compensation and said that
the damage should be compensated through legal procedures. The parliamentarian
intends to apply to the court over the incident.

 

"Heritage Party considers the incident as gross
external interference into domestic-political processes in Armenia with the
approval of the Armenian authorities, namely the Republican Party and de-facto
president Serzh Sargsyan. The incident once again demonstrated inability of the
group of usurpers to ensure sovereignty of Armenia.  We demand official apologies and explanations from the Russian
Federation representatives in Armenia over such inadmissible incident and
inquiry into the incident from the law- enforcement agencies," the
Heritage Party says in the statement.