Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and the Police of Armenia must present substantiated reasons for apprehending the citizens; otherwise, there are grounds to assume that the political authorities are politically persecuting their opponents or artificially imitating persecution. This is what leader of Bright Armenia Party Edmon Marukyan wrote on his Facebook page.

Today, officers of the General Department of Criminal Police apprehended one of the co-founders of the opposition Adekvad party Artur Danielyan, Konstantin Ter-Nakalyan and members Grigor Minasyan and Azat Adamyan. Earlier, founder of VETO initiative Narek Malyan was also apprehended. They were all apprehended on suspicion of possession or carrying of illegal weapons and ammunition. After a while, the citizens were released.

“Today police officers apprehended five citizens. We have stated several times that human rights protection is a priority for us, regardless of which camp citizens are from (“revolutionary” or “counter-revolutionary”). From this it follows that Prime Minister Pashinyan and the Police of Armenia must present substantiated reasons for apprehending the citizens; otherwise, there are grounds to assume that the political authorities are politically persecuting their opponents or artificially imitating persecution.”