YEREVAN. - The decision to lay down the arms was made by the very members of Sasna Tsrer armed group and nobody else could stop it.

Founding Parliament radical opposition group member Alec Yenikomshian told the aforementioned to journalists on Monday, immediately after being released from Yerevan’s Armavir criminal-executive institution.

According to the activist, personally he respects the decision of Sasna Tsrer.

“They didn’t lay down the arms on the first day; thanks to this a situation was created in the country which it hadn’t been possible to create here for many years. If they had laid down the arms on the first day, there would be no such situation. From the nationwide point of view, we are in an absolutely different situation now, and laying down of the arms by the group was not merely a technical issue: many steps have been made during this period,” Yenikomshian said.

Referring to the meeting between President Serzh Sargsyan and Founding Parliament leader Jirair Sefilian, which never took place, the opposition figure noted that such a promise was given by the authorities, but it was never turned into reality.

“Personally I saw Sefilian on July 17. He presented to me his vision on how this issue should be solved without bloodshed, Armenia getting out of the situation with a benefit for itself. He told the members that if they put aside the demand of Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation for a moment and agreement was reached on his meeting with the President, talks could be held on the qualitative reforms and practical steps.

If positive proposals had been made as a result of the talks on reforming the country, Jirair Sefilian would have tried to convince the members to abandon that demand. In response, a proposal was made to set free the so-called captured policemen and launch the talks on all the rest afterwards. In 4-5 days the policemen were set free. But even after this there was no discussion of the rest. This became the breaking of the first promise. The second happened as follows: after several days, [Karabakh MP] Vitaly Balasanyan said that if the members laid down the arms and surrendered, Serzh Sargsyan would meet with Jirair Sefilian. But this didn’t take place. This became the subsequent lie of the officials, which are now deciding the fate of our country,” Yenikomshian said.