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Armenian police intimidate their citizens

8 August 2016 13:14 (UTC+04:00)
Armenian police intimidate their citizens

By Rashid Shirinov

The U.S. Ambassador to Armenia Richard Mills expressed his concern about reports that Armenian activists are being detained by police without any explanation. He made the statement on August 5 during a meeting with the Chairman of Helsinki Committee of Armenia, human rights defender Avetik Ishkhanyan.

“In the early hours of August 4, following a rally, the police without explanation detained 25 activists,” Mills said. “Both the Helsinki Committee of Armenia and the U.S. Embassy are deeply concerned about credible allegations of use of disproportionate force by the police against activists and choosing as the target the journalists working there.”

The Armenian government detains and arrests their citizens and opposition members mostly with no reason. “I was detained without any grounds and then released because of lacking any argument for crime. We are subjected to political persecution,” said Yeghishe Petrosyan, member of the Anti-Crisis Initiative Council. He believes that members of the Council were arrested for isolation and not letting people the right to freedom of speech: “Our children were isolated and they take every effort to prevent organization of rallies and protests.”

For the same reason, members of ‘Hello Yerevan!’ fraction Armen Martirosyan, Hovsep Khurshudyan, and David Sanasaryan were also arrested by the Armenian Police.

Meanwhile, Armenians demand the resignation of the head of Yerevan Police.

Actions, which started on July 17 by Sasna Tsrer, became the reason for protests, demonstrations and processions in Yerevan and other cities of the country. In the course of these events, the police treated people illegally and rudely, forgetting about their responsibilities of maintaining law and order without violating and restricting the rights of citizens. That can be evidenced from many videos that appeared on the Internet. The fraction ‘Hello Yerevan!’ condemned the actions of Armenian Police and demanded the resignation of the head of Police of Yerevan.

To support the armed group Sasna Tsrer and express demands against the government, this weekend Armenians held another rally on the Freedom square in Yerevan. Next rally was declared to be held in the evening of August 8, at 19:30. “We will gather here again in the evening of August 8 and 9,” said one of the speakers of the rally.

To date, 12 people affected by the events continue receiving treatment in hospitals of Yerevan.

On July 17, a group of armed men entered the territory of the Armenian police patrol department in the Erebuni district of Yerevan and took several people hostage. The attackers demanded the release of Armenian opposition figure Jirair Sefilyan, who was arrested nearly a month ago on charges of illegal possession of arms. They also demanded resignation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

Following the long-lasting talks, the armed group on July 23 released all of the hostages. Nevertheless, they refused to lay arms down and surrender to the authorities. On July 27, the group took new hostages. They were four ambulance doctors who arrived at the police station to assist the wounded in the shootout between the police and Sasna Tsrer members. By July 31, they were also released, and the armed group surrendered. The two-week seizure took lives of two Armenian police officers.

From the first day of the seizure, Armenian people started their protest actions against authorities by gathering on Yerevan’s streets. Following the rally in Sari Tagh district of Yerevan, the police brutally dispersed the protesters and arrested 165 people. As a result, 73 citizens addressed medical institutions with injuries of varying degrees of severity. Currently, 15 of them still stay in hospitals.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

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