“Had I been in Zurich I would not have protested against an unfavorable statement made by Turks. I, for my part, would have made my own statement – not that both would have kept silence,” Vahan Hovhannisyan, Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Bureau member, told reporters. “Nothing would have been concealed, and everybody would have known what was in the back of Turks’ mind.” In Zurich, however, Armenians were told: “Stop waffling, sign!”

Asked whether the tragic events of March 1, 2008, could have been prevented if the ARFD had been side by side with the people, Hovhannisyan said: “I do not think so.”

At his meeting with journalists before Vahan Hovhannisyan’s press conference, Vahan Shirkhanyan, Social Democrat Hunchakian Party (SDHP) member asked: why did ARFD become active at the last gasp? In response, Hovhannisyan said: “Shirkhanyan has been part of power structure whole life, but we do not ask him any questions about it.”

As regards a remark by Hamlet Harutyunyan (Republican Party of Armenia, RPA) that after 1920 the ARFD has no moral right to do what it is doing now, Hovhannisyan said: “Let us not discuss the points of view of political figures of this sort. It is so easy to discuss others’ war, especially when you do not know what really happened in 1920.”