Law Enforcement Agencies Are Clearly Acting on Political Orders: Khachatryan

Since this morning, law enforcement agencies have evidently started exerting pressure on our compatriots who are active participants in the "Sacred Movement," acting on political orders. This was stated by Arthur Khachatryan, a member of the National Assembly from the "Armenia" faction, in a conversation with NEWS.am today.

"After Nikol Pashinyan's trip to Istanbul and the publication of that disgraceful piece of paper yesterday—the farce, the pamphlet, the feuilleton, call it what you wish, the satire—it is evident that such repressions were meant to commence today," he said, referring to the "coup plan" released by the authorities yesterday.

"There is no basis under that paper. At least the paper I have seen has only amused me. When one talks about a coup, I imagine something different; this paper mentions, 'We will gather, we will go,' and so on—what kind of coup are we talking about? This could even be something they authored to justify initiating repressions. Of course, people are fighting, any political force has the right to resist, but to fight and present some piece of paper as a coup plan, I apologize, are two different things. The right to struggle cannot be taken away from any people, and we have never said that we refuse to fight and lead that struggle," Khachatryan said.

He noted that he could not say how many people have been arrested or taken into custody.