Armenia: Defense Ministry warns against involving army in political processes

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Ministry of Defense of Armenia has warned that any attempt to involve the country’s Armed Forces in political processes will be met with an “adequate legal assessment”.

The Ministry’s statement came after a video surfaced online, showing people wearing military uniforms joining the protests in the village of Kirants, Tavush province.

Police clashed with residents of the border village and detained other people, including an opposition parliamentarian, on Friday, April 26 amid ongoing protests against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s decision to hand over four border areas to Azerbaijan.

Protesters continued to block streets in Yerevan and major highways outside it in a bid to scuttle the territorial concessions portrayed by Pashinian’s government as the start of the demarcation of Armenia’s border with Azerbaijan. Some of them used heavy vehicles for that purpose. Police forcibly restored traffic through virtually all of those roads.

A key national highway running north from Yerevan was blocked for about an hour in the afternoon, RFE/RL’s Armenian service reports. The protesters there were joined by two lawmakers from the main opposition Hayastan alliance. One of them, Artur Khachatrian, was pushed into a police vehicle and driven away after bitterly arguing with a regional police chief at the scene.

Hours after the video showing people in military uniforms joining the protests landed online, the Investigative Committee revealed that criminal proceedings have been initiated against said soldiers.