BACKGROUND
On July 17th, an armed opposition group stormed the Erebuni police station in Yerevan killing one policeman and wounding several others. They demanded the resignation of Armenia’s President Serj Sargsyan and liberation of their jailed leader Jirair Sefilian, a former Artsakh Liberation War veteran and the leader of a small opposition party called Founding Parliament. Furthermore, they encouraged the public to organize street demonstrations in support of their demands and vowed not to lay down their arms until their demands were fully met.
As thousands of people responded to their call dozens of clashes with the police have ensued leading to detentions and arrests of hundreds of demonstrators. As a result of the events that have transpired, dozens of civilians and policemen were wounded, and taken to hospitals for treatment. A second policeman was shot and killed by an unknown sniper toward the end of the standoff. Some protesters under police custody suffered beatings and acts of humiliation while others were incarcerated on questionable charges.
ANALYSIS
The government media was quick to point fingers at the attackers and blame them for encouraging bloody street clashes between police forces and demonstrators. However, a closer investigation of the events preceding the takeover of the police station revealed that the true causes for the dramatic developments that shook the Armenian world were found in the political climate of Armenia. Specifically, active suppression of political dissent through the use of violence and intimidation and the disastrous performance of the government during Four Day war in April were among the catalysts for this crisis.
Additionally, lack of real political and economic reforms and the unwillingness of the ruling government to share political power with more stakeholders, growing disparity in wealth between haves and have nots and diminishing economic opportunities for greater numbers of people forcing them to emigrate were contributing factors for the turmoil in the weeks that followed.
Constant government propaganda about the necessity to make territorial concessions or their inability to avoid making territorial concessions in exchange for attaining peaceful resolution of the Artsakh conflict through international treaties have furthered frayed the nerves of nearly every Armenian residing in the country and abroad. Once again, the ruling government appeared weak in the face of external pressures and incapable of securing Armenian national interests in its own neighborhood.
The actions of the militant group calling itself Daredevils of Sassoon were illegal without any doubts. Using illegal means to protest illegal actions of the ruling government didn’t make their actions any better as other means of effective non-violent protest were available but not exercised to their fullest. In fact, under such circumstances both sides began to look alike which explained seeming apprehension and indifference towards the events shown by the silent majority of people in Armenia and diaspora. The actions of the group often seemed incoherent and demands aired to the public at the beginning of the standoff were often confusing and contradictory.
Merits for bringing the country to the brink of civil war and collapse of the national statehood were questionable, while actions by the law enforcement bodies were excessive and often illegal. No jurisdiction of any modern country allows the policemen to assault unarmed civilians using brutal force, nor are they allowed to torture detainees in police custody. The rights of every citizen to public assembly and free speech and the right to challenge one’s detention/arrest to demand recourse without suffering retaliation is enshrined in the constitution of every modern state.
CONCLUSION
The events of July 17th and the two weeks that followed revealed that political and economic polarization within Armenia has reached a level of such proportions that the national sovereignty of Armenia has been greatly damaged and is teetering on the verge of collapse. Self-destructive processes taking place in Armenia must stop immediately and cooler heads must make effort to prevail. Every Armenian must realize that the Armenia that we want to see and be proud of first and foremost begins from them, each and every one of them. We must realize that we create and shape our own collective reality that we cannot escape. To change the reality we live in we must start thinking differently, avoid acting out of temper and overcome our emotions with levelheadedness, clarity of mind and precision of action.
RECOMMENDATIONS
It is self-evident that the challenges facing Armenia cannot be overcome solely by the witts of the ruling government. A greater coalition of political parties and organizations must be brought into the fold and engaged in the decision making process. Diaspora must be given a real voice in the present affairs of Armenian state and must not be treated as a cash cow for pet projects enriching the few. Such changes will entail electing representatives of Armenian diaspora by diasporan Armenians or organizations that they are part of to be their voice in the Parliament of the Armenian Republic.
Real and meaningful political and economic reforms must be carried out in a consistent and robust matter to root out corruption and prevent accumulation of significant political power and economic wealth in the hands of the few stakeholders, even if that requires new elections and formation of a new government. All political prisoners must be freed and those responsible for crimes must be punished accordingly. Too many injustices have occurred, thus justice must be restored. The police forces in Armenia need to be retrained while those unfit for duty must be brought to account and expelled from the force.
The security of Armenian people cannot be trusted to pieces of paper and cannot be relegated to backdoor negotiations between a few people who have lost touch with the mainstream reality of everyday people and do not represent the majority view of the people they govern. Simmering tensions and grievances must be immediately addressed through a greater political discourse that is open to all layers of society and all voices of the political spectrum. After all, Armenia belongs to all Armenians around the world and no group or subgroup has a monopoly over its fate. We need to build Armenia that all of us can be proud of to call our home, our OJAKHK.