In Armenia, the anonymous video with the participation of armed men, in which threats are made to the head of the government, received a great public and legal response. While the law enforcement officers have initiated criminal proceedings under the article of preparation for murder, human rights defenders are sounding the alarm, urging not to use the incident to instill discrimination against those forcibly displaced from Nagorno Karabakh.
The “Five Human Rights Defenders Initiative” made a statement, strongly condemning the way of using the video message of five masked persons as an opportunity and inciting public tension towards the Artsakh Armenians. Experts were especially concerned by the fact that the prime minister repeatedly emphasized the Artsakh dialect of the authors of the clip in his public speeches. According to human rights defenders, such rhetoric will inevitably lead to the rise of hatred towards the people of Artsakh.
The reason for the escalation of the situation was the video circulating on social networks, where unknown persons, masked and allegedly armed with assault rifles, make direct threats of physical reprisals to Nikol Pashinyan in the Artsakh dialect. The response of the Prime Minister followed during the pre-election meeting held on May 18 in the Arabkir administrative district of the capital. The head of the government countered the anonymous persons with very harsh and offensive language, urging them to voluntarily surrender to the law enforcement officers and promising to find and severely punish each of them.
Along with the political statements, the incident also received a legal evaluation. The Investigative Committee of Armenia has initiated criminal proceedings on the grounds of preparation for murder by a group of persons, illegal circulation of firearms and ammunition, and computer sabotage.
According to the pre-investigative body, the video containing a real threat to the Prime Minister’s life was illegally caught and distributed on the Internet with motives of political intolerance and hatred, combined with hooliganism. Currently, the law enforcement agencies are conducting an active investigation to find out the identity of the persons who committed the crime.
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