On July 17, 2016 “Sasna Tsrer” group made an armed assault on the Patrol-Guard Service Regiment of RA Police, declared a revolt and put forward political demands. What happened is the direct result of deep crisis of democratic institutions, first of all the elections, neglect of human rights, public opinion and interests by the authorities, incapacity to guarantee the security and sovereignty of the state, corruption and monopoly taking root in all the spheres, existence of political prisoners, increasing migration and tensed moral and psychological atmosphere.

We, the members of the EaP CSF Armenian National Platform, which unites more than 220 CSOs, realizing the necessity of fundamental changes in the country, will in the nearest future give our detailed and principled assessment of what happened. Meanwhile, we deem it necessary to draw everyone’s attention to two issues, which require immediate resolution.

The peaceful resolution of the situation created after “Sasna Tsrer” group’s assault, based on national and state interests, has no alternative. As a result of clashes of July 17 and the following days, there is already one victim and numerous wounded, and it is of utmost importance that the chain of violence be unconditionally stopped.

In this regard, we demand that the RA authorities clearly guarantee the exclusion of the use of force on their part. We also address the same appeal to the people that seized the premises of the Patrol-Guard Service Regiment of RA Police.

On these days we became the witnesses and some also victims of massive violations of the constitutional rights of citizens by the law-enforcement agencies. In particular:

  1. Hundreds of people, including minors, elderly and women, were illegitimately and without any reasonable justification subjected to violence, unlawful persecutions and imprisonment;
  2. There were numerous well-founded complaints about citizens subjected to violence and torture by the police;
  3. Being in detention, citizens were deprived of food, legal assistance (seeing lawyer) and right to decent medical assistance, as well as the possibility to inform their relatives of their whereabouts.
  4. The right to free movement and peaceful assemblies in the territory of the Republic was limited; cases of violence against journalists and obstruction of their professional activities were registered.

Based on the above-mentioned, Armenian National Platform of the Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum strictly condemns the conduct of the RA authorities in this crisis and demands:

– to immediately cease acts of use of force against citizens, releasing all the detained;

– in a brief period of time (within no more than a month) to carry out official investigation in cooperation with human rights organizations, and subject to liability those who gave illegal orders and those who executed them;

– until the end of September 2016 to form authorities-civil society dialogue groups, which will address the crucial issues of public concern;

Taking into consideration that the recent unruly behavior of law-enforcement agencies is also conditioned by their impunity of previous years, it becomes more than topical to conclude the covered-up or artificially dragged-out investigations related to March 1, 2008, June 23, 2015 and other events.

In case the RA authorities fail to give an adequate response to the issues pinpointed in this statement within the next few days, we will have all grounds to assume that they deliberately leave the Armenian citizens, searching way out of the current unacceptable situation, with no other option than resorting to civil disobedience.v