On Wednesday, demonstrations in the Armenian capital continued, police used force, according to Armenian media.
The Armenian Ministry of Health reported that 98 people, including both civilians and police officers, sought medical help on Wednesday, 12 June, as a result of the events on Baghramyan Avenue in the Armenian capital.
Despite, 66 people received the necessary medical care and discharged from the hospital. 32 patients continue to receive medical assistance as a result of light and medium injuries. Moreover, the police used flash-bang grenadesone. As a result, one man had his fingers blown off as a result of the explosion of a flash-bang grenade. In a video, an ambulance doctor can be heard on the phone calling for additional help.
Clashes broke out between the protesters and law enforcement officers. A crowd of demonstrators gathered in the square in front of parliament demanding the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, who was delivering a speech. The police also detained freedom fighter Ashot Minasyan during the clashes on Baghramyan Avenue.
Numerous police officers used brute force against the participants of the rally. Journalists were also injured, NEWS.am cameraman Vazgen Etumyan suffered a broken leg. Citizens carried him out of the rally site in their arms.
Armenia’s Interior Ministry said police detained 42 demonstrators as a result. Citizens detained on suspicion of mass disorder, the lawyer of the injured journalist said.
Statements of Prime Minister Pashinyan
Prime Minister said in an address during discussions in the Armenian National Assembly on Thursday on the implementation of Armenia’s 2023 state budget that Armenia should lower the threshold on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. He stated:
In the future, despite this situation, Nagorno-Karabakh not only did not lower the bar of its ideas, but on the contrary, it hardened its position even more.
He said he proposed a leadership and political forces of Nagorno-Karabakh to meet where he would outline his ideas on the issue. He stressed that in September 2023 he did not support the withdrawal of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians and said that it would mean the closure of the Nagorno-Karabakh issue.
But the clerical-feudal elite of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, together with their CSTO sponsors, closed the Nagorno-Karabakh issue in the hope that it will help them close the Armenian issue as well, by establishing a puppet government in Armenia and effectively ending Armenia’s independence. It didn’t work and it won’t work.
According to him, the Karabakh authorities not only surrendered to Azerbaijan, but also handed over to Azerbaijan weapons worth several billion dollars, acquired at the cost of the hardships of the people of Armenia. He said:
Now they have come, they want to make a change of power in Armenia, so that, as they handed over Karabakh, they will hand over Armenia to the CSTO. But I want to clearly tell the clerical-feudal elite: you cannot change the government in Armenia because you are powerless before the legitimacy born from the people. Only the sovereign, the people of Armenia, can change the government in Armenia whenever they want.
Protests in Armenia began in mid-April in the Tavush region, part of which suffered from delimitation with Azerbaijan: four border villages passed under Baku’s control. Residents of the region blocked the highway leading from Armenia to Georgia.
The movement was called “Tavush for the Homeland,” its participants led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan started a procession to Yerevan. Galstanyan also reported that the opposition was launching impeachment proceedings against Pashinyan. The prime minister responded in May by calling the church an agent of influence and threatened to resolve the issue in the coming months.
