Armen Ashotyan supports ARF

ArmInfo.  The interests of the Armenian people are united. Vice- chairman of the Republican Party Armen Ashotyan wrote about this in his article.

"Despite my natural and unnatural, justified and unjustified, group  and current disagreements with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation  "Dashnaktsutyun", I express my full support and solidarity to this  party in the struggle and in life, in prison and in freedom," the  politician wrote.

He noted that he dreams of the day when the parties will again be  able to afford the luxury of arguing about conservatism and  socialism, while remaining true to the national image. "The photo I  am publishing may once again cause confusion in some people.

I am publishing it in connection with the outrageous repressions  against the ARF. Not only in memory of how in the distant past my  late grandfather Efrem sang Dashnaktsutyun songs while pruning the  mulberry tree in the yard. Not only because I have the most friends  in Dashnaktsutyun after the Republican Party.  Not only in memory of  the fact that this hat was given to me at the RPA office by a guy  from Dashnaktsutyun who came from abroad. Not only because the RPA  and the ARF are exceptional institutional national forces. But also  because we have a common cause, we have a duty, we have a mission, we  have a Homeland," Armen Ashotyan emphasized.

The vice-chairman added that the RPA, and he himself, are so broad  and established that they have long gone beyond the framework of  narrow party propaganda. "I am publishing this because one hand  washes the other, and two hands are already a face. Because the pain  that unites us is stronger than the years, ambitions and fate that  separate us," the politician emphasized.

The day before, the ARF issued a statement in which it noted that on  July 10, searches were conducted at different times in the homes of  ARF Dashnaktsutyun members from early morning, after which the latter  were taken to the Investigative Committee. The lawyers involved in  the ongoing processes reported that no illegal items were found or  seized in the homes of any of the detainees. "Despite this, the  Investigative Committee presented items seized during searches as  material evidence allegedly confirming preparation for terrorist  activity, including equipment for playing airsoft and a T-shirt with  the ARF Dashnaktsutyun symbols," the party's statement said.

It was later revealed that a grenade was found in the house of a  participant in the hostilities (in 2016 and 2020, as well as the  September 2022 battles in Jermuk) during a search conducted without  the presence of a lawyer and without ensuring the legality of the  investigative actions. The statement said that it is obvious that it  is impossible to carry out the terrorist acts attributed to the  detainee with its help. In this regard, the office stated that the  current government is carrying out political persecution against the  ARF Dashnaktsutyun. "This is evidenced not only by today's actions,  but also by the information attacks that preceded them, as well as  the political statements by government officials on the suspension of  the activities of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun in Armenia, which followed  immediately after today's illegal detentions," the statement said.