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By Inga Martinyan

YEREVAN. – Armenian News-NEWS.am spoke with the former Armenian president’s special envoy, National Security Service former secretary, and political opposition member Davit Shahnazaryan.  Below is an abridged version of the interview.

“How do you evaluate the [court] ruling handed down against [activist] Shant Harutyunyan and his friends [who have been sentenced to prison terms]? 

“The verdict is purely political, and I believe that in the situation when Armenia is being annexed by Russia, this factor is also present in the verdict. Shant’s struggle was for Armenia’s statehood and sovereignty, and Russia is very concerned by such manifestations. It’s apparent that the situation of human rights, civil liberties is much worse in the other three Eurasian Union countries [Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan] than in Armenia.            

“Armenia’s EaEU [i.e., Eurasian Economic Union] accession treaty was signed on October 10. What awaits us [, Armenia,] after that?  

“This accession [treaty] is against our constitution, and before entering the [Armenian] parliament, it must enter the Constitutional Court. After the EaEU accession, the Artsakh [i.e., Nagorno-Karabakh (NK)] issue becomes significantly complicated, [and] the Kremlin is attempting to completely assume the NK peace process. The daily growing military cooperation between Russia and Azerbaijan creates a very dangerous situation for the NKR [i.e., the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic] and Armenia. Armenia should do everything to maintain the OSCE Minsk Group.

“The next rally of the trio [i.e., the three non-government parliamentary forces (Armenian National Congress, Prosperous Armenia, and Heritage)] is on [Friday,] October 24. How do you evaluate it? 

“With its political content, the trio, the quartet [, which includes the opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party] union is completely marginal, and it is in the Eurasian canoe together with the actual authorities.”

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