The political course of the current leadership of Armenia in regards to the Presidential elections, severely hinders the already fragile democracy and deals a heavy blow to Armenia’s international reputation.
Under the veil of constitutional order, the right of the people are piece-by-piece being violated by the very leadership of the homeland.
The accelerated pace of events since September 22, i.e. the pre-election panic which dominated within the leadership’s higher echelons, the methods used to blatantly forge and falsify election results, as well as their rejection of public demands regarding tabulation of election results, leaves no doubt that democracy in our homeland is in a state of dissolution.
Moreover, today, fundamental democratic principles are absent, human rights are being violated and brutal force is being used in our Republic. The leadership interferes in the country’s internal life through its power ministries (defense, internal, national security), forcibly undermining the peoples freedom of expression.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun rejects the official fraud being forced upon the Armenian people and nation and declares that with its entire organizational bodies and membership, it stands in solidarity with the popular wave of protest. The ARF cannot accept any election in the independent homeland which has been conducted through force and demands the announcement and approval of the real election results.
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation condemns the current leadership’s brutal policies and considers them a blatant step toward dictatorship.
The constitutional rights of the Armenian people cannot, at any time, become a bartering tool. Thus, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation demands the immediate release of all political activists currently imprisoned and the punishment of the actual perpetrators and organizers of these violent acts, regardless of their position.
At this difficult and trying juncture, when our people are confronting severe economic and political conditions in Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, the ARF-D calls on the people of the homeland to remain alert and not to allow conspiring forces to weaken their just protest.
Today, and in the future, our people will painstakingly protect its human and national rights and will incapacitate all crimes threatening its collective existence.
ARF-D Bureau
27 September, 1996