YEREVAN. – After suspending the talks, the opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) could try to aggravate the situation, the ruling Republican Party’s MP Davit Harutyunyan told Armenian News-News.am.

Commenting on Armenia’s first president and ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s statement that, if ANC activist Tigran Arakelyan is set free, the ANC would be ready to return to the negotiations table, otherwise they would be forced to resort to other means, Harutyunyan said Arakelyan’s release is not a political matter, but a legal one.

According to the MP, it is not good that the opposition force is not sitting at the negotiations table, because discourse itself was a new tradition for the country. “Nonetheless, I do not think that one of the parties can dictate its will upon the other party, and around an issue which is not at all political, but rather legal,” Harutyunyan maintained.  

In response to the question whether the ANC can now try to aggravate the situation, the MP said: “I do not rule out that there would be a desire to aggravate the situation. But what reaction that would bring about is another issue. I believe if they resort to unallowable aggravations, there could be an equivalent response. But expressing views and organizing rallies is their right, and they are exercising that right.”