RPA Deputy Chairman: People`s silence creates political prisoners

ArmInfo.  People's silence creates political prisoners, as stated by Armen Ashotyan, Vice Chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia, during  parliamentary hearings on political prisoners on November 26.

According to him, political prisoners are individual stories, and at  the same time, not just individual stories, as they are about the  history of the country and its tragedy. Behind every individual story  lies the state, its issues and concerns. "There's a lot of talk about  the number of political prisoners-20, 30, and now 60- but we must  admit that the number of political prisoners isn't a statistic; it's  fate, and it's too bad we still don't know their number," Ashotyan  said, noting that the opposition is still playing the "friend or foe"  game.

He pointed out that the presence of political prisoners is evidence  of the state's political malaise. He recalled a book by former French  President Nicolas Sarkozy, dedicated to his 20-day imprisonment. "Now  imagine what the title of Mamikon Aslanyan's book, who has already  been imprisoned for two and a half years, would be? It would probably  be called 'War and Peace.' Unfortunately, we haven't yet been able to  establish a culture of conversation on these issues, since public and  political structures have stopped holding training sessions, the  menus of which, until 2018, were presented like in the best  restaurants," the politician emphasized. He called for October 30th  to be declared the Day of Political Prisoners.

Ashotyan mentioned that the OSCE had previously issued a  corresponding recommendation to its member states. The RPA deputy  chairman also called on the opposition factions "Armenia" and "With  Honor" to heed this recommendation and initiate a bill to add a new  commemorative date to the calendar. Another OSCE recommendation  states that the parliaments of the organization's member states  should accept statements regarding political prisoners. In fact, as  Ashotyan noted, this is precisely what the opposition has done in the  country's parliament, initiating a draft parliamentary statement "On  the Presence of Political Prisoners in Armenia and the Restoration of  Their Violated Rights." If the ruling "Civil Contract" faction  rejects the bill, which Ashotyan considers inevitable, the opposition  could claim that the parliamentary majority has failed to comply with  the demands of its geopolitical sponsors.