Nikol Pashinyan responds to Alec Yenikomshian

 Armenian lawmaker Nikol Pashinyan has touched on the remarks made by Founding Parliament member Alec Yenikomshian, who was set free on August 8.   

When citing Alec Yenikomshian's words "after all this, our country should be at an advantage. Being at an advantage means admitting at least for a minute such a possibility - to push into the background the demand about Serzh Sargsyan's resignation and to meet with him," Pashinyan says, "I hope the other members of the group will also be set free soon and under calm conditions Serzh Sargsyan will promise you (the members of the group - editor's note) to conduct useful reforms in Armenia."    

Pashinyan hopes that he will not be invited to take part in the "post-partisan" debates. "I am no longer going to prevent you from building a constructive and confidential dialogue with Serzh Sargsyan the way I unintentionally did on July 22," says the Armenian MP and member of the Board of the Civil Contract Party.   

As it was reported earlier on Monday, Founding Parliament member Alec Yenikomshian, who was set free on August 8, told reporters that the decision to surrender was taken by the members of the Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoon), who seized the Patrol Guard Service Regiment territory on July 17. No one could impose that decision on them, he said. He stressed that he respects the given decision of the group and does not consider it inconsiderate. "Their fight, even notwithstanding their surrender, was not ineffective. They have created quite a new atmosphere in the country," he says. As regards the authorities' promise to organize a meeting between President Serzh Sargsyan and New Armenian movement leader Zhirayr Sefilyan, who was arrested on charges of illegal acquisition and keeping of arms, Yenikomshian says that the authorities have broken their promise once again. At the same time, he confirmed the words of Artsakh war hero Vitaly Balasanyan and opposition lawmaker Nikol Pashinyan, who said that to overcome the situation that arose after the seizure of the Patrol Guard Service Regiment territory Sefilyan suggested quitting the demand about Serzh Sargsyan's resignation. 

Earlier on August 4, Armenian MP, Civil Contract Party leader Nikol Pashinyan explained why he refused to take part in the demonstrations in support of the Sasna Tsrer (Daredevils of Sassoon) group, which seized the Patrol Guard Service Regiment territory. "The group revised its initial agenda of demands, actually removing the provision of Serzh Sargsyan's resignation," he noted.  Pashinyan recalled that he took part in the protests and expressed his support to the group. "Let this sound immodest, but this could be done by no one but me", he said.  Later, however, he refused to take part in the demonstrations, because the politicized part of the group revised its initial agenda related to resignation of the president. "It is no secret that Sasna Tsrer consists of two parts - a political part that includes Zhirayr Sefilyan, Varuzhan Avetisyan, Alec Yenicomshian, and the part of Karabakh war veterans, who have no political experience.  So, at a certain stage, the political component of the group revised its agenda, quitting the demand about Serzh Sargsyan's resignation and making a serious tactical mistake. The evidence of it was the first interview of Varuzhan Avetisyan, who said that negotiations were being held with the authorities and that they might quit the demand of the president's resignation, replacing it with shrinkage of the president's powers. Afterwards, Avetisyan said that he could not report the details of the talks. Such rules of the game were unacceptable to us. What does it mean to urge people to join them with one agenda but then to change the agenda and keep the talks secret? Then NKR lawmaker Vitaly Balasanyan, who was holding the negotiations between Sasna Tsrer and the authorities, said that Sefilyan put forward no demand about Serzh Sargsyan's resignation. Then Sefilyan's teammate Alec Yenikomshian said that Balasanyan distorted Sefilyan's words. Please note, he did not refute Balasanyan's remarks, he just said that Balasanyan distorted Sefilyan's words. And finally, the statement of Sefilyan did not contain a single word about Serzh Sargsyan's resignation. Such rules of the game are unacceptable to us. This is why we refused to take part in the protests," Pashinyan noted.