What happened to former Prime Minister of Armenia Khosrov Harutyunyan at Freedom Square yesterday was an organized provocation, and police officers apprehended him with a clearly aggressive and disrespectful attitude instead of giving an adequate response to the provocation. This is stated in the statement issued by former Prime Ministers of Armenia Vazgen Manukyan and Hrant Bagratyan and former Prime Minister of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) Anushavan Danielyan. The statement also reads as follows:

“Similar actions of law-enforcement authorities against members of the opposition are solely aimed at inseminating an atmosphere of fear among average citizens who share the views of the opposition so that they don’t try to speak out against the capitulating regime of the country. We condemn and don’t accept the happening and express our support to the former Prime Minister of Armenia. This is actually another act of the incumbent authorities to discredit state institutions in an informed manner, on the backdrop of widespread dissolution of those institutions, and there will be an adequate evaluation of this sooner or later. The phenomenon is also troubling in that this behavior of police officers further contributes to the deepening of the existing barrier between citizens and the police and the spread of an atmosphere of hatred in society.”