We caught up with Sardarapat Movement member Jirayr Sefilyan to get his reaction to a remark directed at him by HAK leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the April 8^th rally.

Sefilyan told us that overall, he found Ter-Petrosyan’s speech to be quite defeatist in nature.

As to the Chamberlain remark (the reference being to Neville Chamberlain, a former British Prime Minister best known for his appeasement policy regarding Hitler), the Sardarapat Movement member said that in his package of proposals presented to HAK he had called on Ter-Petrosyan to urge the people not to use the slogan “Levon for President” during the rallies.

Sefilyan said that he had made the proposal in order to facilitate greater unity amongst the opposition forces. This would be in keeping with an earlier pledge made by Ter-Petrosyan that the people use him as a “tool” for regime change and that he had no ambitions to serve as president again.

Sefilyan also called for a halt to HAK proposals for collaboration with the regime and less verbal attacks on other opposition figures and forces.

“During this stage of the struggle against the authoritarian regime, I find it unacceptable that opposition leaders publicly express intolerance or mockery of others. It’s something else entirely to engage in political or ideological debate,” noted Sefilyan.