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Today, at the dawn, the Founding Parliament members and its supporters sparked an armed uprising. This was stated by FP Vice Chairman Varuzhan Avetisyan; accordingly, early in the morning, the Sasna Tsrer group seized the area of the Police Patrol Service Regimen in Erebuni administrative district. Currently, a group of armed persons took the police officers, including Vardan Yeghiazaryan, Deputy Chief of Police, and Valery Ospiyan, Chief of Police of Yerevan, hostage.

This information was also confirmed by Hunan Poghosyan, Deputy Chief of the RA Police. He also assured that during the attack on the Patrol Service Regimen, Colonel Artur Vanoyan was killed, and Colonel Aram Hovhannisyan, Lieutenant Colonel Hrach Khosteghyan and Subaltern Gagik Mkrtchyan sustained gunshot injuries, and several other persons incurred other bodily injuries.

In various areas of the capital, people are apprehended to police divisions. Among the apprehended persons are: Shahen, Shant Harutyunyan’s son; Petros Makeyan, Chairman of the ‘Democratic Homeland’ (‘Zhoghovrdavarakan Hayrenik’) Party supporting Zhirayr Sefilyan, Head of the FP,  and the son of imprisoned freedom-fighter Volodya Avetisyan.

The armed rebels demand the release of Zhirayr Sefilyan and regularly urge the public to join the rebellion.

And Hunan Poghosyan stated that it was impossible to meet the demand of releasing Sefilyan. The police urges the rebels to surrender.

Medialab had a talk about the current situation, its causes and consequences with human rights activist Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor.

– Mr. Sakunts, in your capacity of a human rights activist, how would you assess the situation on the armed attack and what caused it?

– I am against the resolution of any issue through arms. From this very perspective, the RA authorities have been criticized for long and relevant demands were issued to them, since they resolved political issues through arms which resulted in the events of March 1 and the 10 casualties. Apart from resorting to arms, the very use of armed force was illegal. The failure to investigate the criminal offense and identify and hold liable the perpetrators responsible for the murder of 10 persons created an atmosphere of impunity, which resulted in deep distrust on the part of the public in the legal and political institutes. In other words, the use of armed methods by the authorities has led to the actions the Founding Parliament took today, which is unacceptable.

I am unable to find any justification, but we must understand the causes: they lie in the practices of the authorities, they lie in the selective justice we witness in the initiation of illegal cases against political prisoners and in the absolute failure to administer justice in terms of Liska and the oligarchs.

We must think on how to find a way out of this critical situation. As an RA citizen, I urge the parties to resolve the issue through negotiations; the situation should not be exacerbated. If there are any casualties or unforeseen actions, the authorities will be responsible for them, and such a chaotic situation would even more deteriorate the already undermined state of affairs.

– Could such an armed attack be predicted in our country?

– It was clear that the authorities left no place for any political and legal resolutions of issues and in fact, they left only the way of resorting to arms, but it was difficult to foresee who would take this step. Of course, the Founding Parliament holds the most radical position and we saw that the authorities took actions in this very direction.

Nevertheless, we have to take into account the following: even if the participants of this armed attack are arrested or, God forbid, if there are any casualties, this would not guarantee that such things would never happen again.

– The authorities and their supporters qualified this armed rebellion as terrorism. Do you think it is an act of terrorism?

– No, this is not terrorism; this is a protest expressed through use of arms.

– Is this a rebellion, as they stated, and what are their demands?

– In their statement, they issued the demands below: resignation of Serzh Sargsyan and handing over the power to the government enjoying national trust. Now, if they carry on insisting on those demands, this means that such demands are on the agenda; and on the other hand, members of the Founding Parliament were apprehended and they were unaware of any rebellion. It is difficult to say that the rebellion was previously planned. This is an action taken by a group of persons to attract the public attention.

– Today, as information on the armed actions was shared through social networks, Facebook social network was blocked for some time; also, the roads were closed, vehicles were searched, and after all a large number of people were apprehended to police divisions. Do the authorities fear that the public might follow the FP urge and hold protests?

– Whatever they have done was not legitimate; whatever actions they took, including apprehending the FP members and peaceful civilians from Liberty Square, should have been well-grounded. The practices of apprehending people without any grounds, detaining them at police divisions for over 3 hours and depriving them of legal aid and other similar practices make up a range of illegal actions; there is nothing new about it: they always act in this way. However, I believe that by carrying on such practices, they will lead to even more increased discontent among the public. Hostilities might occur, and all the political forces and public figures considering only one side of the situation will also be responsible for whatever happens if they fail to urge the both parties against any hostilities. The authorities should not resolve the issue through arms but rather through negotiations.

– But the authorities stated that they would not fulfill the FP’s demand of releasing Sefilyan and, of course, all the other demands. Will the negotiations prove successful, or will force be used perhaps even through shooting?

– They should negotiate on laying down the arms; this requires professionalism on the part of the law enforcement agencies. This might last for 24, 48 or 72 hours, but resorting to arms should be excluded at any rate. Why? Because they are also responsible for this situation due to which we witness the current state of affairs. They are responsible for all this.

– Your Organization deals with the cases of the apprehended persons; do you have any news? Have your lawyers succeeded in taking any actions?

– Our lawyers are not permitted to meet the apprehended persons. They do not say no categorically, since they are aware that it is illegal, as well as detaining people in police divisions for hours. At the same, we have received no alerts on any torture, physical and psychological pressure against the apprehended persons. They detain the people illegally and provide no legal clarification.

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