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GERMAN AMBASSADOR TO ARMENIA SAYS LEVON TER-PETROSSIAN CRITICIZED HIM
epress.am
10.03.2011 15:11
German Ambassador to Armenia Hans Jochen-Schmidt on Monday met with
Armenian National Congress (HAK) leader Levon Ter-Petrossian while
both were visiting Liberty Square in Yerevan. Recall, today is Day
4 of the nonstop rallies (set to last a week) declared by opposition
supporters on Friday.
Speaking to the Epress.am correspondent on the scene, Ambassador
Jochen-Schmidt said why he was visiting the square and what he spoke
about with the opposition leader.
"I just returned from Germany, and I wanted to see what's going on
here [in Liberty Square]. I received some SMS [messages], some emails,
[so] I wanted to see what is going on. And suddenly, I met Mr.
Petrossian. He criticized me for having taken the floor recently at a
meeting with Civilitas [Foundation], that I referred, for example, to
the events in 1996, concerning what is it, falsification of elections,
when certain people were thrown into prison, and I, as [I said at the]
Civilitas [public forum], one has to at least acknowledge what happened
at that time. For me [it's] a kind of critical ethics [that is, ethics
of criticism]. If you criticize somebody [that person]... at least
has to acknowledge" that something was not right at the time, from
the point of view of either democratization or something else, he said.
Continuing, the ambassador said he would be concerned if "somebody of
the leadership" said one was "totally wrongly informed" that nothing
happened the way you described it - "for example, the falsification
of elections, that, as far as I know, 230 Dashnaks were thrown into
prison, [and] television stations were closed":
"If somebody said, that doesn't correspond to reality, as a foreigner,
I'm certainly going to be concerned. If he criticized me,... that I
interfere in internal affairs, I think on the one side, we are supposed
to be critical observers and therefore, I allow myself sometimes to
refer to certain events as having occurred in the former times."
epress.am
10.03.2011 15:11
German Ambassador to Armenia Hans Jochen-Schmidt on Monday met with
Armenian National Congress (HAK) leader Levon Ter-Petrossian while
both were visiting Liberty Square in Yerevan. Recall, today is Day
4 of the nonstop rallies (set to last a week) declared by opposition
supporters on Friday.
Speaking to the Epress.am correspondent on the scene, Ambassador
Jochen-Schmidt said why he was visiting the square and what he spoke
about with the opposition leader.
"I just returned from Germany, and I wanted to see what's going on
here [in Liberty Square]. I received some SMS [messages], some emails,
[so] I wanted to see what is going on. And suddenly, I met Mr.
Petrossian. He criticized me for having taken the floor recently at a
meeting with Civilitas [Foundation], that I referred, for example, to
the events in 1996, concerning what is it, falsification of elections,
when certain people were thrown into prison, and I, as [I said at the]
Civilitas [public forum], one has to at least acknowledge what happened
at that time. For me [it's] a kind of critical ethics [that is, ethics
of criticism]. If you criticize somebody [that person]... at least
has to acknowledge" that something was not right at the time, from
the point of view of either democratization or something else, he said.
Continuing, the ambassador said he would be concerned if "somebody of
the leadership" said one was "totally wrongly informed" that nothing
happened the way you described it - "for example, the falsification
of elections, that, as far as I know, 230 Dashnaks were thrown into
prison, [and] television stations were closed":
"If somebody said, that doesn't correspond to reality, as a foreigner,
I'm certainly going to be concerned. If he criticized me,... that I
interfere in internal affairs, I think on the one side, we are supposed
to be critical observers and therefore, I allow myself sometimes to
refer to certain events as having occurred in the former times."