Yerevan.Today: Furious police state in Armenia with silent accompaniment of US, EU, CoE ambassadors

News.am, Armenia
Feb 24 2021

In fact, there is a caricature, a junta, an anti-democratic, and an anti-popular police state regime in Armenia. Today [PM] Nikol Pashinyan had organized a "police rally" in the center of Yerevan. In addition to the fact that it is a disgrace in itself, it was also a confession-demonstration of the self-destruction of Pashinyan and his "[My] step team." The thing is that in the past, Nikol Pashinyan and his "step members" used to talk about the large number of police officers, the danger of turning Armenia into a police state, and so on, in the most scurrilous ways, whereas Nikol Pashinyan himself turned Armenia into a ruined, failed country where he still remains in power only with the help of the police-state regime. Analyst Armen Hakobyan wrote about this on Yerevan.Today website.

Moreover, Pashinyan himself, as we see, surrounds the "walkway" with several thousand policemen to walk 100-150 meters in the center of the capital.

By the way, in the past—that is, at the time when Nikol Pashinyan was an oppositionist and shouted about the police state—he and others like him were actively accompanied by the ambassadors of the United States, Great Britain, the representatives of the EU, the CoE [(Council of Europe)]; in general, organizations representing "international human rights." They are stubbornly silent now. They are silent like a courtesan. Yes, like a courtesan, not a partisan.

What's really going on?

First of all, it should be noted that since March 2020, the country was under a state of "emergency" for half a year, as if to fight the [corona]virus. In fact, on September 27, 2020, the [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war broke out and “martial law” was declared. On November 9, the war ended with Nikol Pashinyan's capitulation act secretly signed behind the people., whereas the martial law continues for the fourth month already.

On what grounds? None. The government says that you know the [army] General Staff wants that, as if there is still a danger of resumption of hostilities. However, let us remind both our government and the ambassadors of the bastions of democracy that, for example, in Georgia, during the 2008 hostilities, martial law was imposed for only 15 days, and in Ukraine, martial law was maintained for only 30 days during all that time. And the only reason, in my opinion, is that Nikol Pashinyan thinks that under martial law, being surrounded by police, he will extend his rule for still some time, perhaps fulfilling some of his commitments assumed before the Turkish-Azerbaijani tandem and to complete the absolute destruction of Armenia.

What is noteworthy?

There is unprecedented police boundlessness in Armenia, absurd and unfounded "martial law," persecution of opposition figures, active citizens, and public figures is being carried out on the orders of the government on trumped-up charges. On Nikol Pashinyan’s direct instruction, the police use violence against demonstrators in most brutal manners, Andranik Kocharyan, a senior representative of the government, disrespectfully threatens to shoot peaceful demonstrations by people, they are detaining—under the fight against fake [social media accounts]—analysts, arrest a media manager, open a [criminal] case against the prime ministerial candidate of the opposition, and constantly threaten by the lips of various-caliber figures of the government. All this happens almost every day, after the end of the war, there is no political solution; power is kept only by police solutions.

And the once most attentive US embassy ever, the representatives of the European Union and the Council of Europe are strangely silent. They don't even make a noise. Why?

That is, we can safely assume that in the past they were overactive not because they are advocates of democratic approaches, freedoms, human rights, their countries, and Armenia a member of the Council of Europe, but because they needed it that way to impose something on today’s/read— former/authorities. Or we can assume that the ambassadors are additionally funded by our hostile countries in order not to hinder the Nikol state, to prolong it as much as possible, to destroy Armenia and the people. Maybe their silence is concrete silver, perhaps reflected in their bank accounts? Otherwise, if it is neither one case nor the other, then how to explain the ambassadors' silence towards this number of injustices?

By the way, if I am not mistaken, it is in the functions of the Council of Europe to monitor and respond if a state of martial law is maintained in a member state after the cessation of hostilities, effectively restricting civil rights and freedoms. In our country, I repeat, it is maintained for almost 4 months. And, you ask, where is that reaction?

No, it's not that the hope is on their talk. But who are they after this silence of theirs?

Armen Hakobyan