Resident of Armenia who held hunger strike intends to resume his protest

Ashot Khudoyan, a resident of the Armenian city of Echmiadzin, who stopped on November 13 his hunger strike, which he held with his mouth stitched up in Yerevan, has promised to resume his protest, if the General Prosecutor's Office (GPO) of Armenia failed to address his case within a week.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that Ashot began his sit-in strike at the walls of the residence of the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan in Yerevan in early November. Khudoyan disputes the ownership right of a part of the house, which, in his opinion, is illegally claimed by his mother and sister. Initially, he protested together with his small children and a pregnant wife, for which he was repeatedly criticized by passers-by.

Khudoyan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that on November 14 he had a meeting with Gevorg Kostanyan, the General Public Prosecutor, who urged him to stop the hunger strike and return home. "He promised to study my case," said the man, adding that if this were not done within a week, he would resume the hunger strike and get back, together with his family, to the building of the presidential residence.

Seda Safaryan, Khudoyan's advocate, said that currently the litigation over the property right is stopped because of the death of Ashot's brother. She is confident that under the present circumstances, many privileges are on the side of her client.