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Heritage, a National Liberal Party, is national by its roots, liberal in its economic principle, and an advocate of the democratic system of governance and due process for its citizens. The party’s objective is the development of Armenia as a democratic, lawful, and rights-based country that anchors its domestic and foreign policies in the nation’s sovereign interest. Heritage’s platform of words and deeds stems from national and universal human values and from the civilizational inheritance of the past, and aims to secure a life of opportunity and dignity for the Armenian people. The party strives also to bequeath to the coming generations a free, strong, and prosperous Homeland, to take part in the constitution and leadership of its national and local governments, and to contribute to the civic, socioeconomic, and cultural life of the Republic. Founded in 2002, Heritage to date has opened 46 regional divisions and 28 offices across Armenia. During the party’s Third Congress on May 30, 2005, Raffi K. Hovannisian was elected chairman of Heritage by a vote of 591 to 3. The remaining eight members of the party board also were elected by direct, secret suffrage. The party’s Constitutional and Audit Commissions were elected in open voting. The Heritage Party convened its Fourth Annual Congress on August 1, 2006. In a powerful keynote address, Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman of the Heritage Party, specified the benchmarks of the party’s future, discussed the state of Armenia within and beyond its borders, and set down forthcoming measures and priorities that would keep real and relevant the party’s goals through meeting new challenges. Following the congress, the newly elected party board convened its first meeting wherein Vardan Khachatrian was elected chairman of the board. On July 11, 2008, the Heritage Party convened its fifth congress. Raffi K. Hovannisian, leader of the Heritage Party, delivered his keynote address. The congress approved the public accounting (in Armenian) of Heritage’s parliamentary group. In conclusion, the congress unanimously adopted the Resolution of the Heritage Party’s Fifth Congress. Following the convention, the newly elected executive board of the Heritage Party convened its first meeting wherein Anahit Bakhshian was elected chairwoman of the board, Movses Aristakesian as its deputy chairman, Vardan Khachatrian and Armen Martirosian as secretaries, Hovsep Khurshudian as Heritage spokesman, and Gevorg Kalenchian as manager of the party’s headquarters. Heritage is located at 31 Moscovian Street, Yerevan 0002, Armenia. It can be contacted by telephone at (37410) 53-69-13 and 53-26-97; by telefax at
December 11, 2009 STATEMENT
We, the young members of the Armenian political parties, condemn the recent belligerent rhetoric of the Azerbaijani leadership to initiate war. We believe that peace is among the most important values for the humanity, especially for our region. >> December 2, 2009 TURKEY, ARMENIA, AND THE TERRIBLE TRUTH By Raffi K. Hovannisian
Turkey has always had its share of decent folks. One close example is the righteous family who, during the great genocide and national dispossession of 1915, risked its own to save my grandmother Khengeni from certain death in the coastal town of Ordu. >> November 27, 2009 LET’S WAKE UP AND GET READY FOR DEFENSE AND RETALIATION Statement by Hayk Youth and Student Union of Heritage Party
The Azerbaijani leadership’s belligerent rhetoric and threats to resume the war have become more frequent recently. On the eve of the November 22 Munich meeting between the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, Ilham Aliyev stated that in case the meeting fails again to produce progress in the Karabakh settlement this time, Azerbaijan will resort to settling the conflict by military means. >> October 12, 2009 AN OPEN LETTER TO THE ARMENIAN NATION PROTOCOLS AND PRECONDITIONS By Raffi K. Hovannisian
The history of the Armenian people has been an ordeal of suffering, tragedy, and genocide. In this millennial series of misfortunes, however, never has the nation invited destruction upon itself. >> July 15, 2009 HERITAGE LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT Dear Mr. President: The Heritage Party is deeply concerned over the joint statement recently issued by the presidents of the three co-chairing countries of the OSCE Minsk Group. In fact, with this statement, the Madrid Principles were disclosed and their anti-Armenian essence were exposed. >> July 15, 2009 Heritage’s Message to the Armenians of Artsakh Dear compatriots: For many years, the true essence of the “Karabagh” problem was centered on Azerbaijan’s territorial ambitions toward Artsakh. >> June 29, 2009 NA Heritage Party Member Zaruhi Postanjian’s News Conference at “DE FACTO ” Press Club June 26, 2009 NA Heritage Party Member Larisa Alaverdian’s News Conference at “URBAT” Press Club
June 16, 2009 NA Heritage Party Member Styopa Safarian’s Press Conference at “HAYATSK” Press Club
June 10, 2009 NA Heritage Party Secretary Larisa Alaverdian’s Press Conference at “DE FACTO” Press Club
June 3, 2009 Heritage’s Statement on the Karabagh Peace Talks The Heritage Party,
May 7, 2009 NA Heritage Party Member Styopa Safarian’s Press Conference at “PASTARK” Press Club
May 5, 2009 Heritage’s New Representative Attends PACE Session
Yerevan—Zaruhi Postanjian, the new member of the Armenian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) and the Heritage Party’s MP, was in Strasbourg from April 27 to 30, where she participated in the spring session of PACE and also delivered remarks during several discussions. >> April 27, 2009 Raffi Hovannisian’s opinion from NA
April 24, 2009 Raffi Hovannisian is the guest of “Gala News Havelvats” program on Gala television
April 23, 2009 Statement of Heritage’s Executive Board On 24 April 2009, the progressive people of the world will join the Armenian nation in paying their respects, for the 94th time, to the memory of the innocent victims of the Armenian Genocide and the resultant great dispossession of Armenian homeland, which the Turkish state had carried out at the turn of the 20th Century. >> April 21, 2009
Yerevan—Approximately seventy young members and supporters of the Heritage Party today held a public march in Yerevan. Despite the unsubstantiated impediments by the police force—as, in accordance with the initial arrangement, the number of the procession’s participants had not exceeded one hundred and, therefore, there were no legal grounds for informing Town Hall, due to the limited nature of the event—the event started from the park adjacent to the statue of the renowned painter Martiros Sarian and its final destination was the Embassy of the United States. >> April 17, 2009 Raffi K. Hovannisian’s News Conference at
March 23, 2009 Heritage’s Statement on the May 31 Elections for Yerevan’s Council of Elders The Heritage Party,
March 18, 2009 Heritage Spokesperson Hovsep Khurshudian’s March 5, 2009 NOTHING PERSONAL: TURKEY’S TOP TEN By Raffi K. Hovannisian Yerevan—That an Armenian repatriate, American-born into a legacy of remembrance inherited from a line of survivors of genocide nearly a century ago, feels compelled to entitle his thoughts with a focus on Turkey—and not Armenia—reveals a larger problem, a gaping wound, and an imperative for closure long overdue on both sides of history’s tragic divide. >> March 5, 2009 Heritage Demands That the Authorities Take Immediate Measures to Take the Country Out of the Current Political and Economic Crisis The Heritage Party holds that the crisis of trust in the country has entered a new phase, and it has found reflection in the economy and the social condition of a large cross-section of the people. >> November 11, 2008 Heritage Executive Board’s Statement on the Meiendorf Declaration Yerevan—The Heritage Party finds that the declaration signed on November 2, 2008 at the Meiendorf Castle outside Moscow by the Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev, and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev undermines the mission to maintain peace, bring Karabagh’s decolonization process to fruition, and achieve international recognition for its independence. >> October 17, 2008 Forward to the Past: Russia, Turkey, and Armenia’s Faith By Raffi K. Hovannisian The recent race of strategic realignments reflects a real crisis in the world order and risks a dangerous recurrence of history. >> October 3, 2008 DON’T THEY TRUST CO-RAPPORTEURS?
Head of the Albanian delegation to the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE), Aleksander Biberaj, has proposed that “the Monitoring Commission Co-Rapporteurs be regularly changed,” Armenian delegate to the PACE Raffi Hovannisian informed A1+. >> October 2, 2008 THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE MAY USE THE POLITICAL PRISONER CRITERION
“The Council of Europe made a late decision on the evident truth,” says PACE Armenian delegation member Raffi Hovhannisian referring to the Monitoring Commission’s decision today that calls on the urgent release of those arrested for political views and the clarification of the reasons for the murders of March 1. >> September 25, 2008 Heritage MP Takes Part in Meeting of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Alexandroupolis, Greece—Secretary Stepan Safarian of the Heritage Party’s parliamentary faction attended, from September 24 to 25, in the 32nd session of the Cultural, Social, and Healthcare Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC). >> September 18, 2008 Heritage’s Parliament Members Attend the European Economic Forum
Krynica Zdroj, Poland—Heritage Party’s parliamentarians Stepan Safarian, Larisa Alaverdian and Anahit Bakhshian took part, from September 10 to 12, in the 18th Economic Forum. >> September 16, 2008 Heritage MPs Welcome Opposition Members From the British Parliament Yerevan—Today members the Heritage Party’s parliamentary faction met with Professor Brian Brivati, the director of the John Smith Memorial Trust of Great Britain, and Damian Green—the vice chairman of the Trust’s board of trustees, vice president of the British parliament’s Tory Reform Group and chairman of Parliamentary Mainstream. >> September 8, 2008 ARMEN MARTIROSYAN ELECTED HEAD OF HERITAGE PARTY FACTION IN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
Yerevan—Today, on Raffi Hovannisian’s motion, the Heritage Party’s parliamentary group unanimously elected MP Armen Martirosyan as its new chairman. “Armen is a promising, young leader and I am sure he will stand Heritage and its mission in good stead,” Hovannisian said. September 5, 2008 RAFFI HOVANNISIAN’S UNPUBLISHED INTERVIEW WITH TURKISH NEWS MAGAZINE Yerevan—On August 21, Armenia’s first foreign minister and Heritage Party founder Raffi K. Hovannisian received a request for an interview from the “Yeni Aktuel” magazine of Turkey. A few days later he delivered, and the magazine thankfully received, his responses to its questions. For reasons yet unknown, the interview has not to date been published. >> September 4, 2008 Heritage’s Parliamentary Group Holds News Conference for European Journalists Yerevan—Today Heritage Party’s MPs Stepan Safarian and Larisa Alaverdian conducted a press conference at the National Assembly and answered the questions of news reporters representing fifteen leading news agencies from European Union countries. >> July 25, 2008 Heritage Board’s New Chairperson Holds First Press Briefing
Yerevan—Today Anahit Bakhshian, the newly elected chairwoman of the Heritage Party’s executive board, conducted a news briefing at Heritage headquarters. Bakhshian was accompanied by Heritage MP Stepan Safarian and spokesman Hovsep Khurshudian. >> July 11, 2008 HERITAGE HOLDS FIFTH PARTY CONVENTION:
Yerevan—Today the Heritage Party convened its fifth congress at the Conference Hall of the Armenian Government. The event brought together 274 party delegates, numerous supporters, invited guests, renowned men and women of the arts and letters, leading members of the academic world, and media representatives. >> July 7, 2008 Raffi K. Hovannisian’s News Conference at
June 27, 2008
Raffi Hovannisian at PACE May 30, 2008 Heritage Holds Executive Session: Party Convention Slated for July 11
Yerevan—The Heritage Party’s Governing Council today called a special meeting devoted to a number of pressing agenda items, including the nationwide institutional crisis flowing from February’s presidential elections and reflected in the well-known April resolution of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). >> May 29, 2008 RAFFI HOVANNISIAN AND HERITAGE AT EUROPEAN CONCLAVES Paris, Berlin—Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman of the Heritage Party and Armenia’s first minister of foreign affairs, took part from May 21 to 28 in a series of international parliamentary conferences convened in the French and German capitals. >> May 27, 2008 Heritage’s Republic Day Statement On this glorious 90th anniversary of the founding of the Republic of Armenia, the Heritage Party extends its sincere congratulations to the citizens of the Republic and to the Armenians of Artsakh, Javakhk, and the Diaspora. >> May 6, 2008 Heritage Party Corrects Coalition Statement The Heritage Party takes note of the collective statement, dated May 4, of the four parties which together constitute the ruling coalition in the Republic. Because of its partisan and misleading nature, however, one point requires immediate rectification. >> April 30, 2008 Raffi K. Hovannisian’s News Conference at National Press Club
April 26, 2008 RAFFI HOVANNISIAN ON PARLIAMENTARY MISSION TO SERBIA, KOSOVO Yerevan—Raffi K. Hovannisian, chairman of the Heritage Party and leader of its group in the National Assembly, took part from April 21 to 25 in a mission of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly (NATO PA) to Serbia and Kosovo. >> April 24, 2008
April 18, 2008 RAFFI HOVANNISIAN and PACE
Strasbourg, France—Raffi K. Hovannisian, leader of the Heritage Party and its faction in the National Assembly, took part from April 14 to 18 in the second part of the 2008 plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as a member of Armenia’s parliamentary delegation. >> April 17, 2008 PACE Second Session 2008
Dear colleagues and friends: These are provisional transcripts of Eleventh, Twelfth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Sixteenth Sittings Sittings of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Eleventh Sitting-Monday 14 April 2008 at 3 p.m. Twelfth Sitting-Tuesday 15 April 2008 at 10 a.m. Thirteenth Sitting-Tuesday 15 April 2008 at 3 p.m. Fourteenth Sitting-Wednesday 16 April 2008 at 10 a.m. Fifteenth Sitting-Wednesday 16 April 2008 at 3 p.m. and Addendum 1 Sixteenth Sitting-Thursday 17 April 2008 at 10 a.m. April 10, 2008 Hovannisian Meets Bryza, Semneby Yerevan—Yesterday evening, April 9, at Heritage Party headquarters Raffi K. Hovannisian, accompanied by Heritage MP Stepan Safarian, received US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State and OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Matthew Bryza. >> April 4, 2008 Raffi Hovannisian Meets Ukrainian Deputy FM Kostiantyn Yelisieiev Yerevan—Today Raffi K. Hovannisian received at the National Assembly an official Ukrainian delegation led by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Kostiantyn Yelisieiev. The visiting delegation, which is in Armenia to hold consultations with the Armenian foreign ministry, also wished to conduct a special meeting with the leader of the Heritage Party’s parliamentary group and Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi Hovannisian. >> April 1, 2008 Hovannisian and Heritage MPs Welcome the Ago Group Yerevan—Today the Heritage Party’s parliamentarians Larisa Alaverdian, Anahit Bakhshian, Zaruhi Postanjian, Armen Martirosian, Vardan Khachatrian, and Stepan Safarian met at the National Assembly with the Ago Monitoring Group of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers. The visiting delegation was led by Sweden’s Ambassador to the Council of Europe Per Sjögren. >> March 31, 2008 RAFFI HOVANNISIAN MEETS GREEK PRIME MINISTER, PACE PRESIDENT Athens—Raffi K. Hovannisian, the Heritage Party’s parliamentary leader and member of Armenia’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), met over the weekend with Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and privately exchanged views on matters of mutual concern. >> March 17, 2008 Heritage Party Declaration on Armenia’s Past, Present, and Future Now more than ever, as the schism between the Armenian people and its government continues to expand, the Heritage Party calls for a national rehabilitation process. Such a process, if it is to be meaningful and permanent, must proceed not in spite but in full and brave recognition of the events that have unfurled in our Republic over the past few months. >> March 14, 2008 Human Rights and Artsakh:
Yerevan—Today, March 14, the Heritage Party’s MPs Stepan Safarian, Anahit Bakhshian, Zaruhi Postanjian, and Vardan Khachatrian received at the National Assembly Mr. Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights. >> March 14, 2008 Heritage Files Legal Challenge to State of Emergency Yerevan—Today the Heritage Party filed a petition with the Administrative Court of the Republic of Armenia, demanding annulment of the president’s March 1, 2008 decree on the declaration of a state of emergency. The appeal asserts, among other things, that the suspension of the activities of democratic institutions and specifically the restrictions imposed upon the media contradict the requirements both of Armenian law and of the European Convention on Human Rights. >> March 7, 2008 Hovannisian, Heritage MPs Meet With Bryza, Prescott, Talvitie, Semneby
Yerevan—This evening Heritage Party leader and Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs Raffi K. Hovannisian received US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chair Matthew Bryza and Chargé d’Affaires Joseph Pennington. >> March 4, 2008 Statement of Heritage’s Parliamentary Group The Heritage party’s parliamentary group harshly condemns the improper and impermissible use of excessive force against the peaceful demonstrators, both in the early morning of March 1 at Liberty Square and throughout the evening of the same day and early hours of March 2 in downtown Yerevan. >> March 3, 2008 Heritage MPs Address the International Community Yerevan—On March 2, Armenian National Assembly members Miasnik Malkhasyan and Hakob Hakobyan were arrested on suspicion of provoking disorderly conduct during the political opposition’s recent demonstrations. >> March 1, 2008, 8pm Heritage Supplementary Statement Heritage condemns the atrocious events that transpired on the morning of March 1 at Liberty Square, as well as ensuing developments that are still taking place. Once again, we denounce the use of brutal force against the peaceful participants of the rally, and the continued unlawful violence used again the peaceful citizens who gathered later across the French Embassy. >> March 1, 2008, 12pm Heritage Condemns With a brutality that is characteristic of the incumbent Armenian authorities and in plain violation of the provisions laid down by the country’s constitution and the international Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the police, in the early hours of March 1, attacked the peaceful protesters of Liberty Square. >> February 29, 2008 Heritage Statement The Armenian presidential elections, held on February 19, 2008, became the culmination point for the most severe violations of the law that were ever committed throughout the tenure of the current authorities—violations that, within the short track record of our independent statehood, have turned into sores in the souls of the country’s freedom-loving people. >> February 26, 2008 Raffi Hovannisian and Heritage MPs Welcome European Officials Yerevan—Today Heritage Party leader Raffi K. Hovannisian met with OSCE chairman-in-office, Finland’s minister of foreign affairs Ilkka Kanerva. They exchanged viewpoints on Armenia’s domestic developments and wider regional concerns. >> February 22, 2008
Liberty Square: Raffi Hovannisian Addresses the Nation February 19, 2008 Voting Abuse Yerevan—The Center for Public Oversight, which is set up at the Heritage Party headquarters to carry out an around-the-clock monitoring of the presidential elections held in Armenia today, received numerous telephone calls attesting to the commission of a large-scale election fraud across the country. Because of the scope of these violations, as of 12pm the Center only recorded the more severe cases of voting abuse but, nonetheless, the information and calls still came in with respect to the countless incidences of election bribe and casting of open ballots. The complete list, in Armenian, of the registered election violations can be found here. January 29, 2008 ARMENIAN CULTURAL HERITAGE RESOLUTIONS IN THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE Strasbourg, France—On the 25th of January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) put into official circulation a Motion for a Resolution titled “The State of Cultural Heritage in Turkey” and a Motion for a Recommendation on “The Present State of Armenian Cultural Treasures in Turkey.” >> January 28, 2008 RAFFI HOVANNISIAN AT THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE Addresses Parliamentary Assembly, Salutes Hrant Dink, Moves Armenian Heritage Resolutions
Strasbourg, France—Raffi K. Hovannisian, Armenia’s first Minister of Foreign Affairs and leader of the Heritage Party group in its National Assembly, took part from January 20 to 26 in the plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). >>
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