“When men in uniform put on the uniform, they become a member of a team, so to speak. However, one shouldn’t forget that one must not go beyond the limits. There cannot always be one party, can there? What does it mean when a party comes to power, it should make everyone wear its uniform and say that they are members of its team?” Tigran Ter-Yesayan, the director of Forum, a human rights center, expressed this idea during a conversation with www.aravot.am, assessing the events that transpired on April 9 and the actions taken by the police of the Republic of Armenia. Focusing his attention on the beating of Armen Martirosyan, the deputy leader of the Heritage Party, he stated: “These are cases, from which one should draw serious conclusions. Let us put aside the fact that Armen Martirosyan is an estimable person, a candidate for mayor, was an MP; he was the person who stood between police officers and citizens and prevented clashes, for example, during the events of 2008. We can also point out the good qualities of the police and our state. But when you watch the videos of the events of April 9, you see that there is a subtlety in what happened to A. Martirosyan. If he wants to take actions not permitted by the legislation, the security forces can prevent that. However, what does it mean, when they take such group actions against a person that remind of ‘no-holds-barred’ fighting; he was leaning, and 4-5 people were pinioning his hands, and another man was hitting him with his knees, seizing the opportunity. Then we see that when Armen was calmly walking with a police officer, someone was running after Armen Martirosyan again, took him by the arm and hit him again. OK, suppose it was not Armen, it was an ordinary citizen. One should draw conclusions from this.”
According to T. Ter-Yesayan, “Times change: today you are a minister, tomorrow not; today you are the Chief of Police, tomorrow not.” Mr. Ter-Yesayan stated that we have seen many prime ministers over the past years who have found themselves in the opposition camp, National Assembly speakers, even presidents of the Republic of Armenia. Talking about the actions taken by the police on April 9, T. Ter-Yesayan expressed the following idea: “Every one of us should understand that such people should not be in our security forces. They should be sent to rings on business trip. On the other hand, you represent the government and you are under an obligation, you are wearing a uniform and you should be restrained. Everyone should understand that political processes differ from social ones; for example, environmental movements. And parties, those same police units are formed as a result of political actions, and one shouldn’t treat people violently, explaining it by the fact that he is a representative of the government. At the end of the day, one comes to power as a result of politics. This is the issue of lawfulness. This is not the issue of esprit de corps; it belongs to us, to our state too, if one has behaved badly, that person must leave.” We inquired whether the movement’s actions had been lawful. Our interlocutor replied: “It is politics; if we look, we will see that marches and rallies take place in other states too. Raffi is not an unaware person. It is a state. The most important issue is the issue of prevention and proportionality. But Baghramyan Street has become an evil for our state; how many times people have been beaten since 2003.” Human rights advocate Mikayel Danielyan, in his turn, noted: “Generally, the police’s actions are not in compliance with the law in Armenia. I am not aware of the movement’s actions, but the fact that streets are closed, and they forbade crossing streets, it cannot be accepted in any way. I always think that the authorities are to blame, since in our country, they are a far cry from concepts of freedom, democracy, and human rights.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
