"The conditions I submitted to the Armenian authorities to manage the political crisis are indivisible," Raffi Hovannisian, Leader of Heritage Party, said in a press conference in the Liberty Square, Wednesday.
Hovannisian said that his demands are the minimum conditions to recognition of President Serzh Sargayan's legitimacy. If in the course of possible negotiations the president decides to withdraw a single point from his demands, he will have to add another point adequate to the previous one. Hovannisian thinks that people who blame Heritage for a deal with the authorities have themselves resorted to such deal. In addition, Hovannisian said, his demands are not a request for a post in the government, but a method to divide the real power in the country between the people and the formal leadership of the country.
"I will be glad if Serzh Sargsyan meets with me in the Liberty Square. I will not leave the Square until our fight comes to a logical end. My principles and my consciousness do not allow me to make deals with the authorities. Everything will be open and transparent," Hovannisian said. To recall, he is on hunger strike for the 17th day already. On March 22 Hovannisian said that he is ready to admit the presidency of Serzh Sargsyan if snap parliamentary elections are held in 2013, preceded by constitutional reforms implying the republic's transition to a fully proportional system of parliamentary elections. In addition, Hovannisian requested the portfolios of the heads of Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Education and Science, Audit Chamber, as well as the portfolios of the Prosecutor General, Heads of the State Revenue Committee, National Security Service, Justice Ministry and Anti-Corruption Commission.
In his response, Sargsyan says that Hovannisian's demands contradict the Constitutional norms and do not meet the realities of state power formation. Nevertheless, they create a basis for further effective dialogue. Further in the letter, Sargsyan urges Hovannisian to stop hunger strike. "Rest for a couple of days and then we will take a pen and a paper and launch a serious and calm work without organizing a show, even on the basis of your yet 'half-baked' offers," the president said.