Problems of RA citizens remain unresolved
12:30, August 4, 2016 | News, Other news
Lragir.am had a talk with Artur Sakunts
Mr. Sakunts, how would you assess the decision of ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group to lay down their arms and surrender?
By laying down their arms and surrendering, they stated that considering the possible bloodshed that might be caused due to use of force by the authorities, they wanted to avoid bloodshed. That is, in fact, they stated that they had no aim to cause victims and casualties, and the authorities stuck to their position of resolving the issue by force till the very end and conveyed no message to the public on the solution of the challenges raised.
Yesterday, Serzh Sargsyan issued a statement, didn’t it contain any messages?
Serzh Sargsyan’s statement came to prove that this person has assumed absolutely no responsibility first of all before the citizens of the Republic of Armenia for ensuring rule of law, equality before the law and justice. He uttered a phrase that the Constitution and laws must be strictly observed, but he doesn’t even understand the meaning of those words since after such a phrase, one shouldn’t at least have urged journalists to forget the violence committed against them instead of requiring that the perpetrators faced most severe punishment and urging law enforcement agencies to carry out an impartial investigation to identify the perpetrators. And the persons directly responsible for the perpetrators are at least Lyova Yeranosyan and Ashot Karapetyan and their head is Vova Gasparyan. But by his yesterday’s statement, Serzh Sargsyan in fact rather assumed himself the responsibility for the violence committed.
Another noteworthy thing about his statement is as follows: that person made absolutely no mention of the large-scale violence against the civilians. By its scale and form of commitment, such violence constituted a typical example of state terrorism since absolutely no legal regulations were observed. He didn’t even consider it necessary to focus on the minor who lost an eye and didn’t consider it necessary to apologize to Sari Tagh district residents who suffered a large-scale act of terror. In other words, we can note that ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group members appeared more responsible to prevent any possible bloodshed, and the authorities, on the contrary, stuck to their practices of not only talking to the public in a language of violence but also sponsoring the other perpetrators. Once again the authorities reinforced the atmosphere of impunity. Hence, now it’s no use talking about administration of justice voiced repeatedly; it’s no use talking about it since one shouldn’t expect that the authorities are able to make a step to improve the situation. And one can get the impression that they rather learn lessons on how to improve their tools of violence to restrain and prevent any potential protests and extreme riots like the one started by ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group. However, they are absolutely unperceptive and even have no wish to refer to the essence of the causes that have led to this crisis situation to understand their own responsibility. So, now we must follow carefully, we’ll identify again the illegal actions already committed starting from this moment against the persons deprived of liberty.
Also, decisions of massive detentions of the protest leaders are made. What do you think of this?
Yes, apart from ‘Sasna Tsrer’ group members, the leaders of civic riots are also prosecuted. Civilians suffer criminal prosecution too. At the same time, we can see no police officer involved as a suspect or accused. And, as always, now police officers aren’t involved as persons who committed violations and violence. This comes to merely emphasize once again the impunity and strict enforcement of the law only against opponents; this logic is applied. And, regrettably, the crisis persists. Making a toast to the idea of national consensus is absolutely baseless since the public at large remains beyond that national consensus. The problems of RA citizens remain unsolved.