“I do not see any political inflection in these arrests” so responded Deputy Director of the Caucasus Institute, Sergey Minasyan, in response to the question of Aravot.am whether he sees any political inflection in recent arrests by the National Security Service. Note that Garnik Gevorgi Margarian (Chairman of the “Homeland and Honor” party) and Vladimir Paylaki Arakelyan (major shareholder of “Yeghvard sports shoes Factory” OJSC) who are suspected of criminal cooperation created by Arthur Vardanyan and for selling and using weapons and ammunition in the organized group under Article 223 (Part 2) and Article 235 (Part 3) of the Criminal Code of Armenia.
Mr. Minasyan believes that in our country where an October 27 happened and there is a public discontent, such activities are not excluded. In this regard, the political analyst explained, “Everyone like Nairi Hunanyan can speak in the street about the authorities or the country, hence, the fact that the forces will be able to specify such things to be able to change something is logical. If the Sefilyans say almost the same thing, for which people who are arrested are accused of, why we should be in surprise that it may not be a reality but to think that it is a politically longer-reaching operation.”
To our observation that Jirair Sefilyan’s supporters explain the calls for disobedience by the fact that the authorities have created such an atmosphere in the country that people have to resort to such a step, Mr. Minasyan does not justify, “It does not matter. People want to change something in this country forcedly. If you think that it is a legitimate demand, it is another matter but people are accused of trying to do revolution by force which is anti-constitutional. Whatever we treat the authorities, it is a process contrary to the Constitution. It must be decided in the result of a court proceeding. I would like to say that if there is such an atmosphere in the country, sooner or later, someone will think that it is time to save the country by force, especially when we have the October 27 as an example.”
To our clarification that consequently, it is not excluded that in case of maintaining this atmosphere, the October 27 will be repeated, Mr. Minasyan replied, “I’m not saying that it will be repeated, but the social approaches are as such, the radicalization is as such that people think that something can be changed in this country by drastic actions. Such people may exist and the obligation of the authorities is to do so that the political process is not turned into a forced conflict.”
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Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
