YEREVAN. – The Armenian authorities have never supported violence either by words or deeds, President Serzh Sargsyan said during his meeting with intellectuals in Stepanakert last week. 

Since 2008, the authorities have been doing everything not to use violence as a tool, he said when asked about the seizure of police regiment by Sasna Tsrer group this summer. During these events, the authorities were free to display their force, but they did everything so that “there could be little blood”, he added.

President Sargsyan spoke about violence occurring in Europe and America: “Many people are killed each year. As any crime, violence, too, will always be an integral part of humanity.”

He also reproached intellectuals for not condemning the actions of the members of Sasna Tsrer group.

“You are all talking about the rule of law, and if the state does not apply strict measures, there will be no order in the society. But the exclusion of violence is the matter of civil society may be, a priority matter. I am sure that if at least a hundred people, a hundred and twenty people, in our country where tens of thousands consider themselves intellectuals, would speak out, we could have overcome these problems much easier,” he said.