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    Categories: 2022

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 05/01/2022

                                        Sunday, May 1, 2022


Armenian Opposition Starts ‘Civil Disobedience’ Campaign


Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in France Square, Yerevan, May 1, 
2022.


Thousands of protesters occupied a square in downtown Yerevan on Sunday at the 
start of what Armenia’s leading opposition forces described as a “civil 
disobedience” campaign aimed at toppling Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.

The opposition Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances pitched tents in France Square, 
the intersection of four key avenues, as they rallied their supporters there 
after days of more small-scale protests. They said they will block streets in 
the city center and other parts of the Armenian capital on Monday to step up the 
pressure on the Armenian government.

“We will not leave this place until we achieve victory,” said Anna Grigorian, a 
lawmaker affiliated with Hayastan.

Addressing the crowd, she and other opposition leaders reiterated that 
Pashinian’s removal from power would prevent sweeping concessions to Azerbaijan 
planned by him.

Pashinian signaled last month his administration’s readiness to recognize 
Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity through a bilateral peace treaty. Critics say 
he is intent on helping Baku regain control of Karabakh. The premier’s political 
allies deny this.

Armenia - Opposition supporters set up a tent camp in France Square, Yerevan, 
May 1, 2022.

“These authorities have no mandate to lead the country to new concessions,” 
Ishkhan Saghatelian, a Hayastan leader, told the protesters before announcing 
the “large-scale actions of disobedience.”

“This is not a seizure of power,” he said. “This is an exercise of dignified 
citizens’ constitutional right to come out and oust these pro-Turkish 
authorities for the sake of Armenia, Artsakh (Karabakh) and the Armenian people.”

Saghatelian also urged parliament deputies representing Pashinian’s Civil 
Contract to use the “last chance to correct your mistake” and defect from the 
ruling political team.

Some of those pro-government lawmakers have publicly denounced the opposition 
campaign and said it will end in failure.

Armenia - Former President Robert Kocharian and members of his family 
participate in an opposition demonstration in Yerevan, May 1, 2022.

The opposition set up the protest camp amid heightened security, with scores of 
riot police deployed nearby. They did not attempt to disperse the protesters.

Earlier on Sunday, Armenia’s Office of the Prosecutor-General warned the 
opposition against “provoking mass disturbances.”

In a separate statement, the National Security Service (NSS) claimed that there 
is a “real danger” of such violence. It said it will not hesitate to counter 
“any kind of actions destabilizing Armenia’s internal stability.”

Saghatelian, who is also a deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, dismissed 
these warnings, saying that the opposition will be staging only peaceful 
protests. He also urged security forces to defy Pashinian’s “illegal orders.”


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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