Azernews.Az

By Rashid Shirinov

The American analytical center Stratfor recently made a statement regarding the current state of Armenian government. “While the hostage situation is over, protests against the government are not over, underscoring the broader political problems the president has yet to solve,” the center states.

The April escalation on the contact line of Azerbaijani and Armenian troops, where Armenians lost part of the occupied Azerbaijani territories, was a serious blow to the image of Sargsyan, Stratfor states.

“Persistent discontent at home and a standoff with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh will continue to cloud the future of the Armenian government,” the analytical center assumed, adding that more demonstrations against Armenian government are likely to happen in future.

The leader of the opposition party Heritage Raffi Hovannisian also warned the Armenian government. “If we cannot achieve implementation of emergency decisions and special elections in Armenia through normal political processes, then the country will witness new armed groups like Sasna Tsrer,” he said at a press conference adding that those will be not terrorists but anti-terrorists fighting against the real “terrorists in ties” who have captured Armenia.

Emigration, poverty, unemployment, non-compliance with laws and social injustice in Armenia obviously angered the country’s population. All this resulted into the attack of armed group Sasna Tsrer on the police station.

İn the meantime, Armenian people still hold rallies in support of Sasna Tsrer, demanding to release its members. The rally of August 4 passed by Northern Avenue, Republic square, Mashtots Avenue, and then the protestes returned to the Freedom square.

As soon as most of the protesters dispersed, police led by the chief of Police of Yerevan Valery Osipyan began to detain those who remained on the square. During the march, Armenian police detained 27 citizens on the Freedom square of the capital.

Meanwhile, strange things happen to the members of Armenian opposition. Harutyun Aglamazyan, who is a member of the radical opposition initiative Pre-Parliament, was brutally beaten on the night of August 5 in front of the building he resides. It is assumed that the attack was implemented by the instruction of Armenian government.

On July 17, a group of armed men entered the territory of the Armenian police patrol department in the Erebuni district of Yerevan and took several people hostage. The attackers demanded the release of Armenian opposition figure Jirair Sefilyan, who was arrested nearly a month ago on charges of illegal possession of arms. They also demanded resignation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.

Following the long-lasting talks, the armed group on July 23 released all of the hostages. Nevertheless, they refused to lay arms down and surrender to the authorities. On July 27, the group took new hostages. They were four ambulance doctors who arrived at the police station to assist the wounded in the shootout between the police and Sasna Tsrer members. By July 31, they were also released, and the armed group surrendered. The two-week seizure took lives of two Armenian police officers.

From the first day of the seizure, Armenian people started their protest actions against authorities by gathering on Yerevan’s streets. Following the rally in Sari Tagh district of Yerevan, the police brutally dispersed the protesters and arrested 165 people. As a result, 73 citizens addressed medical institutions with injuries of varying degrees of severity. Currently, 15 of them still stay in hospitals.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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