Armenian people turn away from Pashinyan
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Armenia is disturbed by new unrest. Recently, Armenian loggers blocked the interstate road Armenia - Georgia. When the police tried to unblock the highway, a collision occurred. As a result, there were many detainees and victims.
The incident was not at all exhausted by the detention of activists and the threatening statements of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
The day after the collision with the police in Ijevan, the residents of the city in protest blocked the road leading from Ijevan to Yerevan, thereby preventing Director of the National Security Service Artur Vanetsyan and Police Chief Valery Osipyan from leaving the city.
The demonstrators demanded the release of the detainees after the incident between the people of Ijevan and the police. The police had to intervene in the conflict, and the road was opened.
However, the heated situation in the city still does not subside. The protesters say they have no job. One of the protesters said that the police broke into their home at 3 am and took away by force her two sons and a husband. Another protester noted that some policemen were under the influence of alcohol.
Meanwhile, Police Chief Osipyan said that in Ijevan, citizens struck the police with blows with stones, sticks and metal bars, the clash was on the one hand. However, relatives of the detainees claim that they have the facts that the police themselves attacked the citizens.
According to the protesters’ information, troops moved into town. One woman said that her son was taken out of the city in an unknown direction.
One of the Armenian citizens who suffered as a result of the protest in Ijevan claims that in the evening the police broke into his house and beat him. He showed injuries to different parts of the body, noting that there are injuries to the head, legs, eyes and nose.
So, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan faced with a biggest problem since the April 2018 coup. The new Armenian authorities openly opposed the people and even used violence against them.
Another scandal has occurred in Gyumri, the administrative center of the Shirak region, the poorest region of Armenia, where the level of unemployment and poverty exceeds the limit. The residents of the emergency building of the former hostel told to Pashinyan that they had tired of the distressed situation and complained that they were constantly starving. One of the residents even lost consciousness during the meeting.
For more than a year, Armenia has never recovered from the April riots. All issues in this country are now resolved exclusively by pickets and blockades. It is noteworthy that when Pashinyan called people in May to block the buildings of the courts, the police were completely inactive, although the actions of the citizens were illegal.
In fact, for the first time Pashinyan used force against a segment of the population with low incomes, which was his most stable support. After the incident, this category of citizens will turn away from Pashinyan and the PM’s rating will drop even more.
Thus, the riots in Ijevan will certainly have a serious impact on the further processes in the country, and so being in an economic and political crisis.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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