Opposition Activists Rounded Up as Pashinyan Visits Turkey
Thousands gather to protest the government of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan May 13, 2024
“Illegal arrests and searches have been carried out against the leaders of the regional structures of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation,” the chair of the party’s Supreme Council of Armenia Ishkhan Saghatelyan announced Friday as other opposition members were also reportedly rounded up by police.
Saghatelyan correlated the mass crackdown on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s visit to Istanbul, as the arrests took place ahead of his meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey.
Saghatelyan said “about a dozen” ARF members were in police custody as of 8 p.m. local time.
In addition to ARF activists, others affiliated with the “Tavush is our Homeland” movement headed by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan were also arrested, according to an announcement posted on social media by the group on Friday.
Glastanyan reported that about two dozen of his supporters were also rounded up
“At the moment, it is known that in different regions of Armenia, Tavush, Kotayk, and now it turns out Lori, our regional leaders are being detained, placed arrest and summoned for questioning [by law enforcement,” Saghatelyan told Yerkir.am in an interview.
“This speaks to the authorities’ fear and all this should be viewed in the context of fulfilling Turkey’s demands, but at this moment I can say that if anyone thinks that with these actions they can keep us from our struggle for the homeland or hopes that this can somehow influence our actions, they are sadly mistaken,” declared Saghatelyan.
“This persecution is not new, it is neither the first nor the last, we are ready for any scenario,” he added.
“In order to please the Turks, he [Pashinyan] has resorted to persecuting the ARF, the Armenian Church, all to elevate his stature in Turkey. This is very important to Pashinyan,” Saghatelyan explained when asked about the crackdown taking place during the prime minister’s trip to Turkey.
Armenia’s Interior Ministry confirmed the detentions, saying that the police received “operational information about the preparation of actions aimed at disrupting public order.”
“The police are carrying out enhanced service, within the framework of which preventive and explanatory work is being undertaken,” said an interior ministry spokesman. “We call for the maintenance of public order. Any illegal manifestation will be met with a tough response.”
“If the police, prosecutors and the National Security Service care about our country’s constitutional order and public order then they must go after Nikol Pashinyan because he is the main threat to that,” said Saghatelyan.
