YEREVAN. – Violence is bad and we hope very much that the violence will be prevented and avoided, head of EU delegation to Armenia Piotr Switalski told reporters when asked about the recent shooting in Jrarat village of Armavir province.

The Ambassador said he hopes that very high emotions would not turn into violence during the election campaign. He emphasized that the emotions are running high during campaign in many countries.

“Big responsibility is on the law enforcement agencies, because as we know from other countries, if violence is not reacted and there is no proper response, it will prompt more violence. So we are paying close attention to the activities of law enforcement agencies, police, investigation committee. I hope they will do their job, it is their responsibility to prevent further acts of violence. So far reports speak about isolated cases which are deplorable, we can only hope that there will be no violence during election campaign,” Switalski said in an interview to several Armenian media outlets, including Armenian News-NEWS.am.

Asked whether he had discussed the case with Armenian authorities, the diplomat said: “We have not discussed at a political level, we leave it to the law enforcement agencies. We discussed it at a technical level, as EU has a special election adviser. She is in daily contact with police and law enforcement agencies, this is how we monitor it.”

Switalski said Brussels is very worried over violence in Armenia.

“We have witnessed in other countries that violence has a snow ball effect. We are monitoring the situation, examining what law enforcement and police are doing. We understand that some people were detained and an investigation has been initiated. I think the police they know their job, it would be there responsibility,” he added.

Asked whether he is aware of the involvement of one of high police officials and his family in the case of violence, the diplomat assured that he knows everything.

“We know everything, almost everything, because in our involvement in preparation of elections, we have to examine every signal. Yesterday I spent the whole day by discussing elections in Armenia. We are very serious, never before the EU has paid so much attention to election campaign not only in Armenia. We are doing it not by our own initiative. We were invited to help, we did not impose ourselves,” he added,

The shooting in the village occurred between the Republican Party of Armenia and opposition Ohanyan-Raffi-Oskanian alliance.