Artur Sakunts: It is clear that the authorities are ready for anything for their vital interests
15:13, April 17, 2018 | News, Other news
HCA Vanadzor Chairman Artur Sakunts answers the questions by MediaLab.
– Mr. Sakunts, thousands are opposed to Serzh Sargsyan being elected Prime Minister. A couple of hours ago, the police applied special measures such as stun grenades, as a result of which Nikol Pashinyan, the leader of the Yelk (Way Out) Alliance, Alen Simonyan and police officers were injured. What is this going to lead to, and how far are the authorities ready to go?
– The police actions have been unpredictable up to now, I mean not only throughout the peaceful protests but also throughout the previous period. That is to say, the police did not act within the law but on the basis of political needs.
And yet once again today, despite the picture of the last few days, when the police in fact behaved quite calmly and did not perform any disproportionate, groundless and unlawful actions against peaceful protesters, showed their real face at the entrance of the National Assembly in the immediate vicinity of the Writers Union of Armenia, applying special measures, which caused injuries; a police officer and Nikol Pashinyan were also injured. Medical assistance was provided to Nikol Pashinyan and now he is at the Square.
I would like to reiterate that there is no ground to apply special measures. What I mean is that the protest was completely peaceful; all the statements according to which there were clashes with the police do not correspond to the truth. 4 members of the National Assembly were in the front row, and before the march Nikol Pashinyan had publicly announced that the movement had adopted the approach of open hands; and in all the cases of individual persons deviating from that principle or committing acts of harassment or other acts against police officers, the latter shall separate such persons in order to ensure the continuation and security of the peaceful assembly. However, the police applied special measures absolutely disproportionately and without any legal reasoning. The consequences of the application of special measures are seen, and they are quite worrisome. If further developments continue by the same logic, i.e. if violence continues – and I see that the police has released that statement – it will be completely illegal, definitely unlawful and disproportionate.
– Are the authorities showing that they will not stop at anything?
– It is clear that the authorities are ready for anything for their vital interests. At the same time, we see that the authorities keep communicating with their citizens in one language only when it comes to their vital interests, and the issues outside the scope of the vital interests of the authorities are of secondary or tertiary nature. Those alleged facts of dialogue are an imitation, are of formal importance as, in fact, the political behavior of the authorities does not have any intention to change in any way.
– Mr. Sakunts, the member of the National Assembly was not allowed to enter the National Assembly. What does it indicate?
– It indicates that, in actuality, we have to do with a police state. While today some information was disseminated, according to which the RPA members entered the National Assembly freely, it turned out that the opposition members of the Parliament did not have the opportunity to enter the same building. This is obviously a discriminatory approach and is typical of a police state, where police officers can refuse National Assembly members’ entry to the National Assembly, and, in addition, apply such measures that harm a member of the Parliament.