Such methods can no longer prevent the events that are going to unfold
00:20, July 31, 2016 | News, Other news
Lragir.am held an interview with human rights activist Artur Sakunts, Chairman of Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly-Vanadzor
Mr. Sakunts, last night we witnessed unprecedented violence and actions by the police against the protestors. What is going on?
In fact, Serzh Sargsyan passed to targeted punitive actions not only against the residents of Sari Tagh district, but also against anybody actually trying to organize the public protest actions. Fully realizing that such organized actions would result in much more serious changes as in fact they may spread with a snowball effect, the police tried to instill fear in people by their violent force, use of special means and overt intimidation. The bodily injuries sustained by the people as a result of the above will heighten this tension even further. Those violent actions were so unrestrained that even covered hospitals, i.e. they were trying to apprehend the persons with health problems as well. Of course, it is clear that such methods can no longer prevent the events that are going to unfold and Serzh Sargsyan has already crossed the Rubicon. He has already found himself in the model of Yanukovych; that is to say, he knows no other social or political tool that will work. He has also become a victim of the situation created by himself and his resignation is inevitable.
Did the protesters take any action at yesterday’s protest for which the police might resort to such steps? In other words, did the protesters take any illegal action?
Within the right scopes of their activities, the civilians held spontaneous assemblies that were peaceful. As they saw that all those actions were really legal, they tried for several times as well as yesterday, to provoke clashes by their provokers to make an impression that the peaceful protest was no longer peaceful. In other words, they created ground for using violence. But yesterday there were no elements of clashes in Sari Tagh district; furthermore, the police issued absolutely illegal demands, and from the very start they were inclined to commit violent acts, which were coupled with large-scale intimidation going as far as to breaking into the apartments of the local residents. Yesterday, a new factor was added by involving the bodyguards of or persons subject to oligarchs, in this case, the oligarch known as Mher from Tokhmakh in violent actions against the civilians. There is abundant evidence of this also on the part of the residents of Sari Tagh district.
There is a very essential point about this that should be raised. In fact, by his actions Serzh Sargsyan has corrupted all the legal institutes; the entire legal system ceased to exist, and currently only orders are applied that can be conditioned by only subjective perceptions depending on the moment. And such subjective perceptions are based on fear, the fear of losing the power, the fear of being brought to responsibility that he will assume inevitably both for the illegal actions committed before, and those committed during these 13 days, which were unprecedented by their continuity and cruelty. I believe it’s high time to really perceive the challenges and they should be perceived by the whole public, regardless of their place of residence. Secondly, the international organizations must demonstrate their serious presence to prevent any further bloodshed and tension as the authorities do not realize absolutely the consequences of their actions, which may lead to further bloodshed.
We also witnessed unprecedented violence against journalists; what was the purpose of such actions?
Before, journalists suffered violent actions as well, but yesterday their conduct resembled that of July 23 when Yeranosyan ordered to seize and destroy all the tools and materials of the journalists and raise fists against them. This also attests to the fact that the order clearly aimed to really use violence so that no evidence was preserved. At the moment, the journalists were the only persons responsively documenting the events and the violence against them also aimed to cover up such actions by preventing their documentation.