Raffi Hovannisian, Armenia’s first Foreign Minister and the leader of the Heritage (Zharangutyun) Party has declared a "fast for freedom" given the crisis stage that Armenia now finds itself in. Mr. Hovannisian said he will be carrying out his hunger strike in Yerevan’s Freedom Square, where peaceful protestors were attacked by Armenian police early in the morning of March 1, 2008. "I’m not begging, requesting or demanding," he said. "However, I expect that in this crisis situation the current authorities will come down and give back the Armenian people their votes and their voice. And I expect the authorities to expedite an emergency solution," Mr. Hovannisian said during his conference statement. During his speech, lambasting the current Sargsyan regime for disavowing its constitutional responsibilities in all sectors of Armenian life, Mr. Hovannisian argued that the rights of the nation’s citizens were being trampled on a daily basis and that drastic measures were called for to return the government back to its rightful owners, the people themselves. The Heritage Party leader took the current regime to task on the issue of national security, a red herring that the government conveniently raises when it seeks to warn of the recklessness of the political opposition and the overriding need for "national stability" in the face of external threats. Mr. Hovannisian said that true national security is based on the freedoms and justice enjoyed by each and every Armenian citizen, and that when such freedoms are lacking, no amount of military hardware can replace them. He called on the Armenian people to unite in the name of individual freedom and regaining their national dignity and ridiculed the West and Europe for the double standards when it came to supporting democracy in Armenia. Mr. Hovannisian said he will continue his hunger strike for as long as he is physically able to do so.