Sasun Mikaelyan: Police actions were dictated by Serzh Sargsyan (video)
The violent police crackdown on largely peaceful protesters in the early hours of Tuesday, June 23, was completely disproportionate, says Armenian lawmaker Khahatur Kokobelyan. On Tuesday, police in Yerevan forcibly dispersed civil activists and citizens who had gathered on Baghramyan Avenue to protest an increase in electricity tariffs. “Law-enforcement officers were to perform their professional duties instead of interfering with journalists’ activities and attacking citizens who were exercising their civil right,” he said. After giving protesters ten minutes to leave the area, police in uniform and those dressed as civilians began to clear the site of the demonstration using water cannons and special means, chase protesters running towards Liberty Square and detained many of them. Representatives of several news organizations were also injured during the clashes. “The authorities acted unlawfully and disproportionately, they should not have thought of their reputation and avoid acting in such a way. The protests were obviously triggered by the decision of the Public Services Regulatory Commission to raise electricity tariffs by about 7 drams. The arguments the PSRC presented to the public were not convincing enough.” Khahatur Kokobelyan said. “For some time, the police were maintaining order and were adequate in their actions. But later they applied force and special means to drag protesters out of Bagramyan street,” said Aghvan Vardanyan, a lawmaker representing the Armenian Revolutionary Federation –Dashnaktsutyun. Sasun Mikaelyan, a Karabkh war veteran and member of the recently formed Civil Agreement Party, says police actions were dictated by Serzh Sargsyan. “Sooner or later, everything will blow up as people cannot tolerate this situation any longer. The main purpose of the acting regime is not to find solutions to the existing problems and prevent similar revolts, but to solve problems by force. They want to show that they are invincible. But you will witness their collapse soon. The standoff on Baghrayan Avenue proves that our young people cannot put up with the situation and I am really proud of them” he said. Representatives of different political forces are unanimous that their duty is to be near the activists without interfering with their tactics or strategy.
