YEREVAN. – A picket was held in front of the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia, and demanding the release of Vahan Badasyan, Chairman of the United Armenia party of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and a Karabakh war veteran.
Artur Grigoryan, one of the demonstrators, said in his speech that their protest was not political, but only a step to save the life of their freedom fighter friend.
Political scientist Ara Papyan, in turn, added: "Yes, Mr. Badasyan said a thought; but many people have said such thoughts. There is a nuance of political persecution here. If you perceive it as a threat, it must be clearly defined what possibility that word had to be fulfilled."
And Pavlik Manukyan—a released member of the Sasna Tsrer armed group which had taken over a police patrol regiment building in Yerevan, held hostages, but later surrendered in July 2016—noted: "The criminals have arrested a national hero because he said [PM] Nikol Pashinyan should be destroyed. I, too, will destroy [Pashinyan]. There are thousands like me. It’s all the same; Nikol's end is being destroyed. Are you listening, police officers?”
Also, Manukyan expressed confidence that the real reason for Vahan Badasyan's arrest was that the Military Council of Armenian Liberation War—and consisting of honest Karabakh war veterans—was being formed in Armenia, and Badasyan is also its member.
On January 28, Vahan Badasyan had told reporters at Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan that Armenia’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan should step down. "If he does not leave [power], then we will eliminate [him] physically, with weapons. I will start organizing." After that, he was arrested by the National Security Service of Armenia.
Badasyan has been charged under the Criminal Code article on making public calls for seizing power, violating territorial integrity, or the forcible overthrow of the constitutional order.