“For the past three days, the republic’s main development has been the events in Liberty Square and the disgraceful developments resulting from them,” editorializes “Hraparak.” “As for the arrest and three-day incarceration of a young female journalist, it does not fit into any ethical framework. The police defend themselves by saying, ‘You can beat and insult us but we are not allowed to do that?’ They claim to be the most unprotected stratum … One thing is clear: we have cleared a threshold, an inadmissible threshold, beyond which is anarchy, immorality, disregard of human dignity and threat to life.”
Interviewed by “Iravunk,” Armen Harutiunian, the state human rights ombudsman, accuses opposition activists of organizing “provocations against police officers” around the square. He specifically refers to the violent incidents that took place there on Monday and Tuesday. “On May 31 there was definitely a provocation because police simply approached and invited several persons to the police station, and … it turned out that they were summoned because there are criminal cases regarding what happened the previous day and those people had to give explanations. There has emerged a situation in our country where [from the opposition standpoint] it is the state official who is always guilty and if you criticize the authority you are always right.”
Tigran Paskevichian, a prominent pro-opposition columnist, tells “Kapital” that the likelihood of a social “explosion” in Armenia is high. “It is because of realizing the likelihood of the explosion that the authorities are trying to deflect the focus of the civic movement,” with controversial government initiatives, he says. “I don’t want public groups to get carried away with petty and at times artificial victories,” adds Paskevichian. “Let us not forget that radical changes are required for changing anything in Armenia.”
“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” says while most Armenian political forces are opposed to the existing international plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, seemingly favored by President Serzh Sarkisian, they disagree strongly on what Yerevan’s Karabakh policy should be. “The Dashnaks and Robert Kocharian, of course, will propose to keep things unchanged. Namely, to do nothing. But the fact is that doing nothing [on Karabakh] after forcing Serzh Sarkisian to resign would not be a solution. The question is not whether it will be possible to force Serzh Sarkisian into resignation in case of unfavorable developments on the Karabakh issue. That is an easily solvable issue. The question is what we will do next.”
(Aghasi Yenokian)
Interviewed by “Iravunk,” Armen Harutiunian, the state human rights ombudsman, accuses opposition activists of organizing “provocations against police officers” around the square. He specifically refers to the violent incidents that took place there on Monday and Tuesday. “On May 31 there was definitely a provocation because police simply approached and invited several persons to the police station, and … it turned out that they were summoned because there are criminal cases regarding what happened the previous day and those people had to give explanations. There has emerged a situation in our country where [from the opposition standpoint] it is the state official who is always guilty and if you criticize the authority you are always right.”
Tigran Paskevichian, a prominent pro-opposition columnist, tells “Kapital” that the likelihood of a social “explosion” in Armenia is high. “It is because of realizing the likelihood of the explosion that the authorities are trying to deflect the focus of the civic movement,” with controversial government initiatives, he says. “I don’t want public groups to get carried away with petty and at times artificial victories,” adds Paskevichian. “Let us not forget that radical changes are required for changing anything in Armenia.”
“Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun” says while most Armenian political forces are opposed to the existing international plan to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, seemingly favored by President Serzh Sarkisian, they disagree strongly on what Yerevan’s Karabakh policy should be. “The Dashnaks and Robert Kocharian, of course, will propose to keep things unchanged. Namely, to do nothing. But the fact is that doing nothing [on Karabakh] after forcing Serzh Sarkisian to resign would not be a solution. The question is not whether it will be possible to force Serzh Sarkisian into resignation in case of unfavorable developments on the Karabakh issue. That is an easily solvable issue. The question is what we will do next.”
(Aghasi Yenokian)