Several of our fellow MPs were detained, but now they are free. Many of our ideologues are now in police stations. Seyran Ohanyan, leader of the opposition "Armenia" Faction in the National Assembly and former defense minister of Armenia, told reporters this on Monday.
"The actions of these authorities are not proportionate; they use brute force. There are many videos of the police troops simply using force with a few people, beating our friends, demonstrators as well—which is not right.
These authorities are able to use force inside the country, but they are not able to use that force within the country’s borders and beyond. If the troops that are stationed in the city of Yerevan today had been stationed at our borders, our borders would have been strong. If these organized troops had been in Hadrut, Shushi [cities of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) during the war in the fall of 2020], had assisted our army, this catastrophic situation would not have happened, we would have achieved success," Ohanyan added.
Peaceful disobedience actions by the opposition have started in Armenia’s capital Yerevan early Monday morning. Accordingly, a number of streets have been blocked.
Earlier, Armenian News-NEWS.am reported that the opposition forces had set up tents Sunday at France Square in downtown Yerevan and stayed there overnight. Resistance Movement coordinator Ishkhan Saghatelyan—the National Assembly deputy speaker from the opposition "Armenia" Faction and a representative of the Supreme Body of the opposition Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Dashnaktsutyun Party of Armenia—announced Sunday that peaceful acts of civil disobedience will begin Monday throughout Armenia, especially the downtown Yerevan streets will be closed off. Also, he called for boycotting school classes and holding labor strikes.
To note, it is raining in Yerevan since the morning, and all these peaceful actions of civil disobedience are being held under the rain.