On April 12, 2004, the “red berets,” carrying out the order of then-president Robert Kocharyan, brutally attacked the protesters on Baghramyan Avenue. Citizens demanded a confidence referendum. There was such a clause in the decision of the Constitutional Court adopted a year before. The High Court proposed to find out one year after the controversial presidential elections whether the citizens of Armenia trust the president elected by the official results.
Of course, that day was neither the first nor the last brutality of the police, and many consider the events of April 12 to be the prelude to “March 1”.
A few months later, in the fall of 2004, the PACE adopted a resolution condemning the violence. Kocharyan’s response was PACE is not a politburo for us. Allegedly, who are they to decide the level of our democracy? However, until then, the government boasts that prestigious international organizations highly value Armenian democracy.
The course of the Third Republic of Armenia is a history of repeated plots. Today, those same police units resort to the same and even more brutal violence, detain people without any reason, and obstruct the work of the media with the same methods.
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International human rights organizations, such as “Freedom House,” record these atrocities. The response of the members of the Civil Contract is as follows: “Freedom House” does not decide whether Armenia is a democratic country. In other words, that organization is not a “politburo” for CP members. However, they boasted that the whole world admires our democracy.
The tongue, of course, has no bones, and CC members can once again claim that Armenia is a citadel of democracy. And it is not excluded that some Western politicians, having some accounts with Russia, may repeat that tale. But whoever opposes police brutality, whoever opposes “locking up” opponents, should always be against it, regardless of which political group is in power today.
Pashinyan is more than similar to Kocharyan. he will stop at nothing to keep his power.
Aram ABRAHAMYAN
