The ruling regime has exhausted the resources of political repression against the opposition, a senior representative of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) has said, Tert.am reported.
In an interview with the Russian newspaper Moskoovskiye Novosti, Levon Zurabyan, the coordinator of the opposition alliance, addressed the authorities yielding policies, considering their conduct a little surprising.
"After using repressions for 3.5 years, opening gunfire on their own people on March 1, filling the prisons with hundreds of political rivals, dispersing rallies and banning demonstrations on Liberty Square, it is really surprising to see the authorities' yielding stance. But the explanation is clear - the regime has exhausted the resources of its repression policies against the ANC," he said, when asked to comment on the Armenian authorities' occasional concessions since 2001.
Zurabyan noted that their alliance had managed to protect the union of 18 political parties in 2008, thus becoming the first ever political force in independent Armenia to create what he called a shadow government.
"Despite the police bans, we re-established the right to hold rallies, and in 2011, we had more people on the streets than ever before. Of course, the deteriorating socio-economic situation and the Arab countries' scenario, as well as the changing international situation played a certain role. The authorities came to realize that the situation in the country might go beyond control without concessions," he added.