Nice Gesture

HHSh normally has 25 members at its governing body. This year, however, it will have 31 members. During the last party congress, the four HHSh members who have been harassed for political views (political prisoners Ashot Manukian, Harutyun Urutian and Aram Bareghian and novelist/former big-shot in the executive branch Vano Siradeghian).


Unfortunately, this did not happen without unpleasantness. Karapet Rubinyan quit HHSh because the voters were given a list of "recommended candidates"; the list did not contain his name and unfortunately was not distributed publicly. Another part of his reason was that the party congress reminded him a Brezhnev era gathering of the CPSS.