On 19 May 2011, the Heritage Party’s leader and chairman of its board Raffi K. Hovannisian, the head of Heritage’s parliamentary faction Stiopa Safaryan, and its member of parliament Zaruhi Postanjyan met, at the Yerevan Office of European Union (EU) Delegation, with EU ambassadors, foreign mission representatives to Armenia, and officials from the European Union delegation to Armenia. The meeting brought together the United Kingdom’s Ambassador Charles Lonsdale, French Ambassador Henry Renault, Swedish Ambassador Diana Janse, Dutch Ambassador Pieter Langenberg, as well as the Romanian, Polish, and German deputy heads of mission. During the meeting Raffi Hovannisian comprehensively introduced Heritage’s outlook on Armenia’s internal and regional challenges, security matters, and domestic political challenges. He also reaffirmed Heritage’s dedication to fundamental democratic values: the protection of human rights and liberties; upholding of the rule of rights; separation of and balance between the branches of power; and change of government by way of free and fair elections. Within the framework of regional matters and security issues, Hovannisian stressed the imperative of recognizing the Republic of Mountainous Karabagh (MKR), the need to normalize Armenian-Turkish relations through confronting history and without the positing of any preconditions, and the importance of meeting the challenges facing Armenia’s sovereignty and providing an equality of rights and a horizontal nature to the country’s bilateral and multilateral relations. In their turn, Stiopa Safaryan and Zaruhi Postanjyan spoke about Heritage’s parliamentary and civil initiatives respectively. They also informed the European diplomats about the reasons for the Heritage parliamentary faction’s recent demarche in the National Assembly, and regarding the general rejection of the proposals by and views of the parliamentary opposition. Upon the request of the high level diplomats, Raffi Hovannisian and the participating Heritage MPs also offered their vision for the upcoming elections and their challenges. The Heritage officials underscored the need to carry out a discourse between the parliamentary majority and the opposition, to adopt a new electoral code by means of mutual concessions and to implement systemic reforms, to thoroughly, impartially and extensively investigate the tragedy that occurred on 1 March 2008, to release the political prisoners and present a formal and accurate law-based political assessment for that calamity, and to carry out—without obstructions and restrictions—the right to hold assemblies, so that future tragedies can be avoided. To note, on 18 May, the head of Heritage’s parliamentary faction, Stiopa Safaryan, met with a delegation headed by the European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, while Heritage MP Zaruhi Postanjyan addressed a group headed by the Hungarian parliament speaker László Kövér.

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