Artak Galstyan on Change of Detention Measure for His Wife, Retaining or Resigning His Mandate

Artak Galstyan, the head of the "Public Voice" party and newly elected member of the Yerevan City Council, who is currently in Nubarashen Prison, has responded to questions from "Iravunk".

- The change in your wife’s detention measure has been interpreted by some so-called opposition colleagues as a result of a deal between the authorities and "Public Voice," especially since this coincided with Tigran Avinyan’s election. What do you say about this?

- I regret the state of mind of those opposition figures and their value system. When I was arbitrarily arrested before the elections on trumped-up charges, my family members, party colleagues, and almost everyone were subjected to physical and psychological torture; no one addressed this issue. On the contrary, the opposition media gladly disseminated the discrediting releases published by the prison service three to four times a day. They also did not respond when I reported and made public that they were demanding we not participate in the elections.

Now, after keeping my wife in illegal detention for four months without any investigative actions, and only changing her detention measure by the court, the so-called opposition is raising a fuss—even though ten members of our party, including my son and me, still remain in custody. The irony is that those who have collaborated with this government for five years and have kept their power with both black and white tactics are accusing us, the prisoners, of entering into a deal with the Civil Contract.

I will also mention that all our party members will be vindicated—not for voting against Avinyan, but because they are innocent and are political prisoners.

- There still seems to be a "darkness" among the public regarding how the members of the "Public Voice" faction assured Tigran Avinyan’s election despite their votes against it, as claimed by those from "Mother Armenia" and "National Progress"?

- "Public Voice" makes its decisions without emotions, purely based on political expediency and the interests of its voters. The Civil Contract, even with the coalition with the "Republic," was ousted from the Yerevan City Council due to the election results and cannot make any decisions without the opposition. It was also recorded that the Civil Contract has lost its legitimacy in Yerevan. The forces keeping the back of the Civil Contract under the name of the opposition lost their monopoly on being the only "opposition." In other words, the entry of "Public Voice" with seven mandates marked the beginning of the end of the game that destroys the current and former political landscape of black and white. In this case, allowing the Civil Contract to rectify the situation with new elections would be foolishness and a great gift to the authorities from us. The Civil Contract needed new elections the most to rectify its previously described disgraceful situation through the application of administrative resources and total repression.

By not participating in the boycott, we prevented that, and this was the right decision. Furthermore, with the current border situation and the presence of 100,000 refugees, holding new elections would be a blow to Armenia from behind.

- So how will you act regarding your mandate? Will you keep it, or will you resign it?

- I will still keep the mandate; later, when I am free, I will decide.