Opposition attracts attention of human rights activists

Members of the board of the United Armenia organization, headed by one of the opposition leaders Vahan Kostanyan, at the initiative of Edvin Tamazyan, began collecting signatures in order to submit a collective complaint to the Ombudsman and draw the attention of all human rights organizations to the disproportionate actions of the police and the remaining unpunished cases of violence.

The day before, we met with Edvin Tamazyan and learned about the progress of collecting signatures. According to the politician, people are very willing to join the initiative. “Many people have recently been participating with even greater activity in rallies organized against the current authorities and their policies, and have high hopes that through a joint struggle we will be able to eliminate Nikol Pashinyan’s pack, which is why the number of people is growing every day,” Tamazyan assures. He intends, on behalf of his organization “United Armenia,” to submit an appeal with the collected signatures to the Ombudsman’s office and demand an adequate response to the actions of the police.

Let us recall that a few days ago, during a march initiated by the “Resistance” movement, which was joined by a number of opposition forces, including the “Armenia Bloc” and “United Armenia”, a clash once again occurred between demonstrators and the police. As a result of the actions of special police forces, 14 opposition activists with bodily injuries of varying severity are in hospital treatment, 36 people received first aid.

Let us note that, according to official data, about 2,000 members of the bloc were brought under arrest, and according to our data, their number exceeds 2,500. The leaders of the movement and the initiative group for collecting signatures intend to use all legal means to ensure that the actions of the police are given a proportionate legal assessment. “It is noteworthy that arrests using brute force and open violence against opposition representatives are widespread, which is directed by the authorities; they even openly threaten to open trumped-up criminal cases against us, with the goal of specifically silencing and suppressing all of us,” emphasizes Edvin Tamazyan.

According to the author of the initiative to collect signatures, he does not expect that justice will be achieved from the authorities who give orders to use violence and the law enforcement officers who blindly obey them. According to Tamazyan, before starting the initiative to collect signatures, he consulted with his lawyer Edgar Bademyan and came to an agreement that if all domestic authorities remained silent, then, with the assistance of Bademyan, their complaint would be sent to the ECHR.