Son of A Revolutionary (video)
The leader of United National Initiative Shahen Harutyunyan recalled: "Republic Square is the center of struggle. Since the age of 14, we went to struggle, together with my father, Shant Harutyunyan, and our friends. My father had called our revolution a “revolution of values.” What kind of values and ideals a society has, the power is shaped and carries out actions with such ideals and values. In the Soviet social order, the National United Party was the first non-Communist, non-Bolshevik Party, a unique phenomenon in the entire USSR expanse, one of whose founders was my grandfather, Shahen Harutyunyan. And I founded United National Initiative, although my father had taken some steps in that direction; the objective primarily is the engagement of the youth in the fight for the Republic of Armenia to have a free and independent prosperous country. I study at the Department of History at Yerevan State University. Each and every person is obligated to know the history of his country, his own country, homeland. I wished to assemble my friends, conduct discussions on history; we will learn the history of [our] own history, and after which we will be able to fulfill our ideas, visions. Considering the mistakes of the past, we should craft a country that will not repeat the same mistakes. Still in the years of Soviet Union, they wished to eliminate our family for 70 to 80 years, do everything, so that we would not have heirs; that is why, I decided to get engaged early. And my marriage depends on my father’s freedom. I will get married when he is released from prison. I met with my chosen [girlfriend] after the April [2016] war. We were organizing demonstrations near the Russian embassy, demanding from Russia not to sell weapons to Azerbaijan, and that is when I met her. Naturally, each and every one of us wishes to have a power to fulfill his goals and dreams. But the priority, aside from power, is the homeland. We will have a normal state when people clearly know their duties, clearly know their rights, ultimately realize that they need to fight for their rights."
