YEREVAN. – If European People’s Party (EPP) President Wilfried Martens’ view becomes the general position of EPP, Armenia’s Heritage Party will review its membership in this organization. Opposition Heritage Party leader, former FM Raffi Hovannisian—who is declared runner-up to the winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the presidential election that was conducted on February 18, but who claims to be the real winner in the vote and who declared a hunger strike on March 10 at capital city Yerevan’s Liberty Square—stated this during a press conference at the square on Monday. 

Reflecting on the EPP chief’s demeanor, Hovannisian specifically said as follows: 

“If his demeanor is Europe, we do not need that Europe. If Martens’ view becomes the view of the assembly, Heritage will review its membership in this organization, considering that Europe is not true to itself and Armenia will not fall into that water. As a member party, we also will demand the resignation of Martens.”       

To note, in response to Heritage’s recent open letter that was addressed to him, Wilfried Martens had considered the accusations the party had made against him to be baseless. 

“Perhaps Serzh Sargsyan’s challenger, Raffi Hovannisian, received much more than the votes he [actually] expected, and maybe now he has illusions that he could have received the majority [of the votes]. [But] the reality is that, in the first round of elections, the incumbent president received the majority of the votes,” the European People’s Party President had stated in particular.

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am