Human rights defender on the incident in Panik Village: The new authorities are legitimate; however, the nature of the Russian authorities has not changed
16:18, July 19, 2018 | News, Other news
The servicemen of the Russian 102nd Military Base carried out military exercises in the administrative territory of Panik Village, which scared the residents of Panik and the adjacent villages. The intrusion by the subdivisions of the Military Base occurred without a warning. Even a young boy lost consciousness.
In an interview with Factor.am, human rights defender Artur Sakunts highlighted that the Ministry of Defense should require a clarification from the Military Unit. According to Sakunts, an internal investigation needs to be conducted in order for the guilty, especially those at the level of the commanding staff, to bear their punishment. “The public should know what measures are undertaken so that no such, mildly put, odd incidents are recorded. The main issue, however, is for the RA Ministry of Defense to establish a close supervision over the border military base and the border guard forces. It is also important to conduct a financial audit to find out how effectively the funds allocated to the base from the RA budget are used. I think this is not done,” our interlocutor noted.
Touching upon the determination of the new authorities and the comparison between the current and previous authorities, Mr. sakunts mentioned, “In comparison with the previous authorities, the new ones are legitimate; however, the nature of the Russian authorities has not changed. They are used to dealing with obedient authorities.” Arur Sakunts stressed that he would like for the incident to have been a mishap, not provocation. Provocation, according to the human rights defender, is typical of the RF, as it generally does not forget about the military factor when communicating with its partners, conditionally put. “Russia is not used to have partnership with weaker states. Taking into account all this and the fact that the new authorities have adopted the policy of partnership with the RF on the basis of the principle of equality, it stems from it that our government should comply with the conditions I mentioned,” concluded Artur Sakunts.
In political scientist Aghasi Yenokyan’s opinion, they had to demand from Russia from the highest level to ensure that such actions are coordinated with Armenia. “Certain measures should be carried out near the base. That is, there should be combat duty by the Armenian Military Police, which should require evidence of the lawfulness and coordination of such military exercises,” the political scientist mentioned. Mr. Yenokyan did not agree with our observation that the previous authorities would have been less determined when expressing complaint to the Russian partners. According to him, although there is no change in the policy of the new authorities, Russia forces them to be more devoted.
Our interlocutor recalled that the previous authorities were able to make certain arrangements connected with the Armenian driver’s licenses, while the new authorities failed to do so. It should be added that Press Secretary to the Prime Minister Arman Yeghoyan reported to Azatutyun (Freedom) Radio that the incident that occurred in Panik Village, Shirak Region, is at the center of Prime Minister’s attention.