Police Clarify: No Disciplinary Violations by Officers in Incident Regarding Participation in the War

The actions of police officers who stopped a vehicle with Artsakh license plates and questioned whether individuals were participating in a protest, in light of not having participated in the war, do not constitute a disciplinary violation. This was communicated by the police in response to written inquiries from Tert.am.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Armenia specifically inquired whether any responsibility had been attributed to the officers involved in the incident.

“Investigations revealed that the police officer did not inquire whether the citizen participated in the Artsakh war, while another officer, due to increased duties, inquired about the citizen’s participation in the public gathering. The actions of the police officers do not contain the characteristics of a disciplinary violation,” stated the police response.

It is worth mentioning that a user named Sayida Poghosyan had published a post on her Facebook page, describing how police stopped her friend's car, who had sounded their horn. “But later it turned out that the issue was not the horn but the presence of Artsakh license plates on the vehicle. Within minutes, four police cars approached my friend; none of the eight officers were armed or had audio-visual recording devices, and this freedom allowed them to take provocative actions and engage in conversations with street language and unrelated questions,” she wrote.

Furthermore, the police indicated that the vehicle needed to be taken to an impound lot based on the claim that it was wanted. Sayida Poghosyan shared videos in the comments of her post, where the police could be heard asking the Artsakh resident, “Are you going to participate in this protest? You didn’t participate in the Artsakh war, are you going to this protest?”