Summer protests have already become traditional for Yerevan, the capital city of Armenia, Friedrich Schmidt writes on the pages of the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine. For instance, three years ago people there protested against the public transport price hike, in 2014 protests were against the pension reforms, and a year ago dissatisfaction arose due to the power tariff rise.
All the previous protests had a social character and a specific objective, but were not accompanied by dissatisfaction with the current political system headed by President Serzh Sargsyan. Even when the country’s leadership wanted to change the constitution for strengthening their power last December, only several hundreds of people took to the street, the author writes. “However this year, what has been happening in Yerevan for the last two weeks had political indices from the very beginning,” the article says.
In the morning of July 17, 30 gunmen stormed the police station in one of Yerevan’s districts, firing at one and wounding several other police officers. Another eight police officers were taken hostages. The group, which is the radical wing of Founding Parliament opposition party, calls itself Sasna Tsrer. Five weeks ago the party leader Jirair Sefilian was arrested by the authorities on charges of illegal acquisition of arms and developing plans to storm governmental institutions. On the heels of the police station seizure, Sasna Tsrer armed group members demanded to release the arrested and other political prisoners, as well as dismiss the cabinet. And from the very beginning, the seizure was accompanied by solidarity campaigns, being first supported by dozens, then hundreds and, finally, thousands of people, the article reads.
This time, the key role is played by the dissatisfaction with the political system of Armenia. Particularly, many citizens are sure that the country’s leadership is a “kind of military-political conglomeration with participation of several oligarchs, who have divided the country between themselves, without being responsible before anyone.”
Thus, after the recent escalation of the “conflict with Azerbaijan round Nagorno-Karabakh” and despite accusations of corruption not the Armenian Defense Minister, but some of his subordinates resigned.
When visiting the wounded soldiers, the Minister’s wife stood out not so much for her compassion, but for her extravagant dresses. As to the country’s prime minister, they say he lives in a house, which looks like the pompous replica of the Armenian parliament building, Schmidt writes.
