Human Rights Defender Appeals to Acting Police Chief Arman Sargsyan

Is it possible, this time, not at the invitation of any international organization, but rather on your initiative, to invite various representatives of the public to discuss the events of January 28? This was stated by the President of the Armenian Helsinki Committee, human rights defender Avetik Ishkhanyan, addressing the Acting Chief of Police of Armenia, Arman Sargsyan, on his Facebook page.

The full post is as follows:

“On January 28, in order to obtain substantial explanations regarding the actions carried out by the police under the Prime Minister, the ruling 'My Step' faction organized a meeting with the Acting Head of Police, Arman Sargsyan. After the meeting, seeing the satisfied faces of the deputies and Mr. Arman Sargsyan's self-assured explanations, I am sorry to say, it was proven that the meeting was formal in nature.”

“Could the deputies of 'My Step' actually oppose the acting head of police who is associated with the 'Dear Leader'? Was it in 2010 or 2011-12 when, once again, to discuss the disproportionate actions of the police, a meeting was held at the initiative of the OSCE office in Yerevan with civil society and Deputy Police Chief Arthur Osikyan? The meeting was indeed effective, and afterward, the police's actions were restrained for quite some time. Then everything 'fell back into place' again.”

I address the Acting Police Chief, Mr. Arman Sargsyan:

- Is it possible this time, not at the invitation of any international organization, but rather on your initiative, to invite various representatives of the public to discuss the events of January 28?”

It is worth mentioning that two days ago, Narek Malyan, the leader of the 'VETO' initiative, members of the 'Adeqvat' initiative Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan and Artur Danielyan, as well as two others, and Narek Samsonyan, the President of the 'Civil Consciousness' NGO, were detained. All were released later.