Yerevan rises in revolt against Sargsyan

Serž Sargsyan, president of the country for the past 10 years, has been elected premier, according to a reform built by himself, to continue to govern. "The people have been mocked". The demonstrations led by the opposition leader, Nikol Pashinian.

Yerevan (AsiaNews) - Yesterday  April 17, the Armenian parliament (the National Assembly) appointed Serz Sargsyan, president of the country for the past 10 years (his mandate had just expired). But already for five days a mass protest against Sargsyan’s grip on power have engulfed the streets of the capital, there is (photo 1).

In fact, after the 2015 reform, inspired by Sargsyan himself, the premier is the highest authority in the country. Previously the executive power was in the hands of the president. In this way, Sargsyan has ensured the continuity of the power that he has been managing for over a decade.

Because of the protests, the parliamentary vote was held in "siege regime": the Bagrmanian and  France Square, adjacent to the Assembly, are guarded by the police, and armored vehicles are positioned in front of the building. The leader of the protest is Nikol Pashinian, head of the opposition party "Elk" (photo 2). Yesterday morning he again summoned his supporters to block access to the parliament building and the central streets of the city, and to prevent all government facilities from working.

Addressing the crowd gathered in France Square, Pashinian proclaimed the "revolutionary condition" of the country and the beginning of a " popular and non-violent velvet revolution" in what seems to be the biggest mass demonstration in the history of Armenia. Later the demonstrators, led by the head of Elk, went to the General Prosecutor’s Building, calling on him.

On the eve of the parliamentary vote, the opposition had already started several protests, paralyzing traffic in the center of Yerevan. People sat at the crossroads and on the bridges, without letting cars pass by, even leaving the cars on the road with their lights on. Students from high schools and universities were also called to participate in the protest.

Two days ago there were also clashes near the parliament, with about thirty arrests by the police, some injured including Pashinian himself, thrown against a barbed wire prepared by the police (photo 3). Even a policeman was injured by a stun grenade thrown at the demonstrators. Yesterday morning Pashinian was handed the text of his charges of infringement of the rules on public demonstrations, which the opposition leader tore in front of the crowd.

According to the political scientist Stepan Grigorian, director of the Yerevan Center for the Analysis of Globalization, the reasons for the protest lie in the criticism that Sargsyan has deceived the population: "When the constitutional reform was presented, and the transition to the parliamentary system, the then President Sargsyan promised that he would not present his candidacy as premier, so that no one doubted that the reform was in favor of democracy and freedom, and now we see that the people have been mocked.' The president also contests the extensive corruption of the leaders and the bad government of recent years, which led to a large emigration of Armenians to other countries. Moreover, the members of the president's family actually occupy the key posts of the administration, and are constantly rewarded with honors.

The protests are not ideological: they are not even for or against alliances with Russia (even if Putin is a supporter of Sargsyan) or with Europe and America, as in neighboring Georgia. The future of democracy in Armenia and of the internal development of society, which is going through a difficult period of economic depression, is at stake.

• Armenia
• economy
• political reform
• Serž Sargsyan
• Nikol Pashinian
• velvet revolution
• non-violent
• democracy