YEREVAN. – The Tigran Arakelyan Protection Committee is formed at the initiative of the opposition Armenian National Congress Party (ANCP). 

All those who will sign under the following sentence can become a committee member: “We recognize Tigran Arakelyan as a political prisoner and demand his immediate release.” 

“This will be the most massive organization in Armenia’s history because it will be signed by people with different political views, but united under one thing: there should not be a political prisoner in Armenia,” stated ANCP Vice-Chairman and ANC NA (i.e., Armenian National Congress National Assembly) Faction leader Levon Zurabyan.

He informed that six newspapers have joined the aforesaid initiative. As of Saturday, September 21—that is, on the 22nd anniversary of Armenia’s independence—, these newspapers will be published with the following sentence on their first page: “We recognize Tigran Arakelyan as a political prisoner and demand his immediate release.” 

Zurabyan called upon all media in Armenia to join this initiative and to start every morning with the above-said sentence, so long as Tigran Arakelyan is in jail.     

To note, a general jurisdiction court had sentenced ANC activists Tigran Arakelyan, Artak Karapetyan, Sargis Gevorgyan, and Davit Kiramijyan to six, three, and two years, respectively, as a result of an incident that had occurred on August 9, 2011, in capital city Yerevan. The Criminal Court of Appeals had upheld this ruling, and therefore the activists’ attorneys had submitted to the Court of Cassation their objections to this verdict. As a result, six of the young activists were released on signature bond, whereas Arakelyan had remained under arrest.