YEREVAN. – I regret that a seasoned politician like opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party National Assembly (NA) Faction Secretary Aghvan Vardanyan has not accepted and understood the reason for the steps taken by opposition Heritage Party Chairman, former FM Raffi Hovannisian—who was 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—during the protests that were staged in capital city Yerevan on April 9. Heritage’s NA Faction Secretary Zaruhi Postanjyan stated this during a press conference on Wednesday.    

“On that day, Raffi Hovannisian did everything he could to avoid bloodshed. We had to deal with terrorist actions, which were backed by Serzh Sargsyan, and we could not have succumbed to terrorist provocations,” Postanjyan said, and stressed that the aforesaid protests did not result in any arrests, injuries, or casualties.

To note, commenting on the recent rallies in Yerevan, Aghvan Vardanyan had noted that he could not understand why Raffi Hovannisian had honored the memory of Jesus Christ, preyed with the Police Chief at the Armenian Genocide Memorial, and left for Moscow to bring the “triumph” of the Armenian people.            

Photo by Arsen Sargsyan/NEWS.am