We, civil society representatives of the Republic of Armenia strictly condemn the illegal actions of RA police against the people who were exercising their rights and freedoms in Yerevan on December 2, 2013. We demand that violations and political persecutions against citizens be stopped and the police officers having committed illegal actions be held liable.
On the initiative of civic activists, a number of events were held in Yerevan on December 2, 2013 on the occasion of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s arrival in Armenia. They intended to express Armenian citizens’ protest against Serzh Sargsyan’s personal and ungrounded decision for Armenia’s accession to Customs Union and Eurasian Union and to defend the principal of sovereignty of Armenia, stipulated by RA Constitution. During these events citizens’ rights to free movement, freedom of expression and peaceful assemblies were violated by RA police. More than hundreds of citizens, including journalists who were implementing their professional activities were through using brutal force and without proper grounds brought to various police departments in Yerevan. In parallel, the Armenian authorities urged hundreds of citizens to leave their workplaces during working hours against their will and to take part in various events organized within the scope of Putin’s visit to Armenia.
Civic activists’ arrests began early in the morning when they attempted to fix posters and placards of protest in various sites of the city. The police officers persecuted several citizens and visited their apartments in order to bring them forcibly to police departments. A duly notified hasty peaceful protest march, pursuant to RA legislation, was obstructed in the afternoon. The police restricted citizens’ movement by various methods, damaged the protesters’ posters, provoked clashes, used threats and physical assaults and forcibly brought the protesters to police departments without legal grounding. “Hunt” for activists was especially actively staged after the end of the protest march and for several hours the police officers in different parts of the city persecuted and forcibly brought the citizens to police stations and kept them in places of detention for longer hours than permitted by RA legislation.
Entrance to police departments and meetings with detainees by RA National Assembly MPs, attorneys, and representatives from RA Human Rights Defender’s office were obstructed. The official site of RA Police published personal data of the citizens who were forcibly brought to police stations in violation of their right to privacy, threatening their security and hindering their due administrative proceedings.
It should be mentioned, that the “security measures” taken by RA police and the ratio of the number of citizens forcibly brought to police station to the number of participants in the public outcry were unprecedented. Factually, there was a state of emergency in Yerevan and Gyumri, the places where Putin visited. It was explicit manifestation of the Armenia’s authorities’ servility and willingness to please the Russian president. Against the backdrop of the above-mentioned illegitimacy, a question arises as to how effectively the financial resources allocated by international organizations to the Armenian police were spent for years. The resources were intended for the development of democracy, human rights and governance.
The above-mentioned actions taken by RA police are gross violations of the principles of people’s right to free movement, expression and freedom of assemblies prescribed by RA Constitution, international treaties and domestic legislation. Such an attitude toward the Armenian citizens witness that the Armenia authorities, despite their multiple statements, are not committed to comply with principles of democracy and to respect human rights. Such an attitude typical of authoritarian states fully comply with the policy pursued by the Armenian authorities on accession to the Customs Union and Eurasian Union. Therefore, the Republic of Armenia’s accession to such institutions is implied to be a challenge to every citizen in our country in protecting one’s freedom and dignity, deciding one’s own future, and getting rid of the authorities that had usurped the people’s power and sold the state’s independence.
“Transparency International Anticorruption Center” NGO
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