On 23 February, dozens of members and supporters of the Armenian Homeland Salvation Movement were detained as they attempted to stop the country’s Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan from entering a government building in Yerevan.
The Movement had urged supporters to surround the building that houses several government ministers as part of its ongoing campaign of street protests aimed at forcing Pashinyan to resign. The high-rise was cordoned off in the morning by scores of riot police that kept protesters at bay and enabled Pashinyan to enter it and hold a meeting with senior officials from the Armenian Ministry of Environment.
More than 50 protesters were detained on the spot. Gegham Manukyan, a senior opposition figure, claimed that the police made more than 100 arrests. Manukyan also said that the security forces tried unsuccessfully to detain the member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation-Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) Ishkhan Saghatelyan, who coordinates the opposition movement’s day-to-day activities. “We didn’t let them do that,” he told reporters. According to eyewitnesses, Saghatelyan was injured in an apparent scuffle with the riot police.
Two days earlier, four anti-government activists were arrested and indicted over the weekend for allegedly creating a social media account that regularly spreads offensive comments about Armenia’s leadership. The country’s National Security Service (NSS) charged Ara Saghatelyan, a former chief of the Armenian parliament staff, Karen Bekaryan, a veteran pundit and former lawmaker, and two other men with calling for violence and criticising government actions in breach of martial law declared during the autumn war in Nagorno-Karabakh.
In a statement, the NSS claimed that the “group” led by Ara Saghatelyan opened a Facebook page under the name of “Gagik Soghomonyan.” It cited in particular the “fake” Facebook user’s abusive statuses blaming Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for Armenia’s defeat in the war, branding him a “traitor” and insulting his supporters. The Facebook page continued to be updated after the arrests. All four suspects denied any connection with “Gagik Soghomonyan.” Lawyers representing them dismissed the accusations as politically motivated.
A Yerevan court sanctioned Ara Saghatelyan on a two-month pre-trial arrest. During former President Serzh Sargsyan’s rule he ran a government-funded public relations agency. His lawyer said he will appeal against the decision. The experts in anti-Azerbaijani propaganda were carrying out protest actions in front of the NSS building after Saghatelyan’s pre-trial arrest. “We will show both the people and the NSS servicemen who Ara Saghatelyan really is and what contribution he has in the anti-Azerbaijani propaganda, what efforts he exerted to make the Armenian position understandable and perceivable for all the parties dealing with the conflict,” political analyst Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan told the reporters. He also said that the NSS wiretapped and followed Saghatelyan during the days of war, on the days when he was working with international mass media in Stepanakert/Khankandi.
The Armenian police also launched criminal proceedings against the Movement’s PM candidate Vazgen Manukyan for a statement he made during the weekend. “At any moment - it could be today, one week later or ten days later - we must be ready for revolting and taking power at lightning speed,” said Manukyan. He described that as “Plan B” of the opposition campaign for Pashinyan’s resignation involving peaceful protests.
A spokeswoman for Prosecutor-General Artur Davtyan said that the Armenian police launched a criminal investigation into public calls for a violent overthrow of the government. He said that the criminal case has been sent to the Investigative Committee for further inquiry. The law-enforcement authorities did not say whether Manukyan would be summoned for questioning.
