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Their statement specifically said that Armenia is facing the possibility of losing its independence, sovereignty, democracy and the possibility of development as a free nation and they demand that the Constitutional Court find the EEU membership anti-constitutional.
Some opposition figures also joined the citizens, among them Stepan Safaryan, a political analyst, the founder and president of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs, Soviet-era dissident Paruyr Hayrikyan, leader of the National Self-Determination Union (NSDU) and ex-presidential candidate Andrias Ghukasyan.
“The CC now presents our country not to a group of people in Armenia, but rather to some foreign country. I am here for them to see that there are people here who are consistent and they understand that they are committing a crime,” Safaryan said, adding that this is a crime committed in broad daylight.
NSDU leader Hayrikyan said that EEU membership is a betrayal of the strategic interests of the Armenian nation, and it will bring no good to the Armenian economy.
“Why would those who go against the will of their own nation have respect for Armenians? Russia and those who are a member of it are despotic and we cannot teach them anything,” he said, adding that the European Union’s economic potential is eight times as high and it is unwise not to seek integration with such a system.
It is noteworthy that according to the opinion of the majority of opposition forces in Armenia, membership in the EEU is not going to affect the country’s sovereignty. Specifically, opposition Armenian National Congress leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan said in his speech at the October 24 rally: “In the EEU Armenia will be as sovereign as Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Kyrgyzstan.”
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