BY Alina Nikoghosyan ArmeniaNow
Members of the No To Plunder civil initiative think that the sit-in in Baghramyan Avenue is no longer appropriate and new platforms for the resolution of their demands should be found.
The group that initiated protests against rising electricity prices earlier this month told media on Tuesday that it will still be present at the demonstrations in Baghramyan Avenue, but not as coordinators but as Armenian citizens.
On June 28, No To Plunder largely accepted the compromise plan offered by President Serzh Sargsyan to defuse the current crisis and called its supporters to unblock Baghramyan Avenue that remains closed for traffic because of the nonstop protests since June 23. However, the greater part of the protesters stayed there continuing demonstrations. They remain in the area even today.
“Vaghinak [Shushanyan] didn’t manage to read out our decision till the end and it implied that part of the group would stay in Baghramyan Avenue together with the protesters while others would go with those who do not see their struggle here. At this time many people tried to discredit people in Baghramyan Avenue on our behalf, but all of them are our friends and we support them,” Arthur Kocharyan, a member of the initiative, said.
The group members said that their demand didn’t change but No To Plunder would meet different specialists to discuss the president’s proposals.
On Saturday, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan announced that the government will take upon itself the burden of compensating for the electricity price hike from August 1 and suggested commissioning an international audit for Armenia’s power grid. The president also noticed that the initiative members might be included in the process.
“We had stayed in Baghramyan Avenue for quite a long time and our next step would be blocking streets. However, being at the same area all the time proved quite difficult. We cannot succeed by just blocking streets, we need concrete professional help,” Sofya Hovsepyan, the coordinator of the group, said at today’s press conference.