Sasun Mikaelyan contradicts Yelk: Elections were not legitimate (video)
Sasun Mikaelyan, a lawmaker representing the Yelk alliance in the National Assembly, understands the reasons behind the actions of the Sasna Dzrer armed group that seized a Yerevan police building in July 2016 and held it for two weeks. “People had no way out. Naturally, such things happened in the past and will happen in the future if these authorities do not understand [the condition of people],” he said. Sasun Mikaelyan would like to see a change of power through velvet revolution. Anyway, he thinks that Serzh Sargsyan will become prime minister in 2018. “… or general secretary,” he said. The lawmaker says the opposition should try to prevent this from happening but people should support the opposition. “For many years these revolts and upheavals gave hope to people but the latest elections came to show that people take bribes and go to the polls.” Mr Mikaelyan says that the power could have been changed in Armenia both during the seizure of the police station by the Sasna Dzrer group and during the trials of opposition figures after the March 1 events but the opposition leaders did not do it. “The government does not want to take any steps to take people out of this situation. The opposition is doing everything but people are either disappointed or hopeless. I am sorry to say but people have gone into business.” By saying “the opposition,” Sasun Mikaelyan means the Yelk alliance. After journalists reminded him that the Yelk has accepted the outcome of the elections and did take to the street to protest against the results, the lawmaker said, “How can the elections be legitimate? The world has witnessed the entire process!”
