Armenian law enforcement bodies abduct student during march
By Rashid Shirinov
An Armenian student Robert Grigoryan, one of the protesters against the notorious restriction of students’ right to defer military service, was detained during the march to the National Assembly of Armenia on November 15.
“We stood near the Opera Hotel when three men came up and dragged Robert into their car. They only said they were law enforcers. Robert’s phone is out of range,” a participant of the protest told the Armenian media.
Later, Gegham Asatryan, member of the initiative "For Science Development," told media that Grigoryan participated in the action, but he was not among the initiators.
“Why did they take him away? In case they would have taken me away in the first place,” Asatryan added.
Under the newly adopted law, a male student desiring to continue his education and delay serving in the army, must sign a contract with the Defense Ministry of Armenia in order to get a draft deferment. In this case, the person will have to serve three instead of usual two years in the military after completing his studies at the location chosen by the ministry. Moreover, during his study period the student will have to undergo military training.
After a week-long boycott of classes and on the second day of the hunger strike at the Yerevan State University, the protesting students – following a closed-door meeting with Speaker of Parliament Ara Babloyan and the Press Secretary of the Republican Party Eduard Sharmazanov – declared that they are stopping the boycott and hunger strike. The students said they agreed with the authorities to hold a round table on November 22 to discuss the issue.
"From the very beginning we stated that the boycotting of classes is a means of asserting ourselves. We will understand what to do next after the round table and discussions, member of the initiative "For Science Development" David Petrosyan told Armenian media. “Representatives of the authorities told us: “If you can convince us otherwise, the law will be repealed.”
Thus, the Armenian students managed to draw attention of the government to the important issue. Currently, Armenia is among the Top 3 most militarized countries in the world and now the authorities, apparently, want to even more expand the militarization among the country’s population. Armenians do not enjoy this policy of the government, as well as many other decisions by the authorities that complicate their life in the country. Due to this, there are frequent protests in this South Caucasus country and the outflow of the already small population of Armenia is accelerating.
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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov
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