14 May 2008, 10:46
In Armenia, Karabakh war invalid Arshavir Bazinyan stops his hunger strike
Late at night on May 13, Arshavir Bazinyan, ex-combatant from the district of Vanatur in Razdan, invalid of war in Nagorno-Karabakh, stopped his hunger strike, which he resumed on May 8.
The "Caucasian Knot" informed earlier that he had already held a 19-days-long hunger strike with a demand to release his combat leader Sasun Mikaelyan, a deputy of the National Assembly. Then, he stopped his protest action on Mr Mikaelyan's request. A participant of the present hunger strike was also Janet Nersisyan - the widow of the casualty combatant Asot Nersisyan.
During their week-long hunger strike, Bazinyan and Nersisyan were not visited by a doctor and representative of law enforcement bodies. In the opinion of Arshavir Bazinyan, they just do not wish to draw any greater attention to the protest action in Vanatur. According to the ex-combatant, he has stopped his hunger strike with the aim "to pass over to more decisive steps."
From March 23 on, protest actions in Vanatur district of the city of Razdan, in which, apart from the hunger-strikers, seven dozens other people are taking part, did not stop for a single day. Posters with slogans demanding to release MP S. Mikaelyan and his photos abound in the streets of Vanatur.
Author: Lilit Ovanisyan, CK correspondent