Artur Sakunts, “Elimination of Zaruhi Postanjyan from Armenian Delegation in the PACE is Political Repression”
09:58, October 10, 2013 | News | Right to be free from torture and inhuman or degrading treatment, Right to liberty and security, Right to Respect for Private and Family Life
“The NA Chairman didn’t have the right to eliminate Zaruhi Postanjyan from the composition of the PACE Armenian Delegation”, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor Artur Sakunts told Aravot.am. Continuing his thought, he stated, “Hovik Abrahamyan is as much a deputy as Zaruhi. Initially, both enjoyed the same mandate. The delegation is formed by political forces based on the nomination of their candidate. Therefore, the delegation composition is initially determined. ”
Artur Sakunts considers Z. Postanjyan’s elimination from the delegation’s composition after posing her question in the PACE as “political repression”. In this connection he stated, “From this perspective, such an approach against a political figure or representative of an opposition party along with the statement on the elimination from the delegation’s composition is an attempt of restriction and persecution against Z. Postanjyan’s opinion and political disposition, which is a contradiction for CoE member countries”.
We questioned whether Artur Sakunts still had concerns regarding Z. Postanjyan’s security, since on the day of her arrival to Armenia he expressed such concerns about it. Mr. Sakunts replied, “Through media outlets I witnessed an attempt to meet Zaruhi with tomatoes and eggs by patriotic forces.” To our comment that no such thing happened, Artur Sakunts responded as follows, “If political activists and the initiative didn’t state about going to the airport to protect Zaruhi from possible encroachments, then that might have happened. With this regard, the president’s institute was reasonable enough to publicly state that such actions weren’t welcomed. Otherwise, there would a scandalous situation at the airport”.
Artur Sakunts relates the phenomenon with another fact, “Galust Sahakyan declared that as if the youth unprovoked initiated such actions. Now we witnessed that those unprovoked actions could be prevented by the president’s institute and that all of those unprovoked patriotic actions are either formed or come to the fore by the president’s institute. Unprovoked actions, as such, don’t exist, they are all manageable. Even no single person appeared in the airport, who could afford to make another statement. Such a total management over the conduct of the unprovoked is astonishing to me. However, at various possible sites in the airport police officials were carrying out their function of keeping the public order. Thus, it was clearly instructed to nip every possible incident in the bud.”