Sources of violent methods in Armenia

In the last two days of the confrontation between the government and armed gang that captured the Building of Regiment patrol service (PPS) on July 17th and held several hostages until a new phase. As a result of talks among the representatives of the authorities and the Sasna Tsrer gang (‘Sassoon man of courage’) through the mediation of General Vitaly Balasanyan, four police officers were released. In response, the authorities promised to comply with the requirements of the gang, creating a press center in the territory of PPS regiment, as well as provide them with regular internet connection and a direct dial telephone. One of the representatives of ‘Sasna Tsrer’ Varuzhan Avetisyan stressed that their demands remained unchanged – the resignation of President Serzh Sargsyan, the release of the leader of the civil initiative ‘Constutive Parliament’ Zhirayr Sefilyan who was arrested last month on charges of the acquisition and possession of weapons, as well as the release of political prisoners and all detained in recent days in clashes with the police.

Vitaly Balasanyan

"We intend to continue the fight with weapons in our hands until the regime is stifled. We raised an armed uprising to liberate our country and will not lay down arms until we are witnessing fundamental changes,’’ Avetisyan said, adding that as long as they remain in the occupied territory. Members of the group say that they have enough weapons to resist. They are also have prepared for other activities, which are not limited to "the operation."

Thus, the prolonged standoff format has changed significantly. Despite the release of the hostages, the confrontation continued. The authorities continue to make every effort to permit bloodless dangerous situation, but the members of the group showed that they are not completely insane people.

The authorities are at the sources of attempts to solve problems through violence. During many years it falsified elections. Armenia has lost the opportunity of change of power in a civilized manner. The capture of the territory of the PPS regiment was a reflection of this serious problem. The Armenian society accepted the results of the parliamentary elections in 1999, but since then national elections were falsified, and the company did not recognize their results.

The most part of citizens are extremely dissatisfied with the difficult socio-economic situation that requires constant change of power. However, each time large-scale fraud opposes the majority of society’s desires and aspirations. It leads to mass protests. Post-electoral processes are accompanied by arrests of activists and organization of fruitless litigation.

In 2008 rigged presidential election results led to unprecedented protests that led to 10 and wounded and more than 200 killed people. The power is in no hurry to find the real perpetrators of the tragedy on March 1st, 2008.

For several years, the authorities falsified the elections, trying to extinguish the people's anger, but did nothing to change the socio-economic situation.

All this contributed to the emergence of social movements, representatives of which talked about holding parallel elections and the formation of a parallel government. It took place during a long period of time and complicated process. As a result it led to the events of July 17th.

Today society categorically rejects violent methods of the government bias. It means that they don’t support the ‘Sasna Tsrer’ gang, but on the other hand, society is strongly opposed to grouping against coercive methods. It's kind of a dead end, the authorities will find the way out of it, which faced the consequences of the policy pursued by their lawlessness.