Epress.am News from Armenia
Russian border guards near Lichk village in Syunik marz yesterday evening stopped vehicles carrying Heritage Party members, who were campaigning for the parliament elections in electoral district no. 38.
MP Zaruhi Postanjyan inquired by what right Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers are stopping cars on an interstate highway. At that moment, Heritage Party representative David Hakobyan began to video-record the conversation, but he was attacked and his video camera was broken.
As reported by Aravot.am, after the incident, Mirzoyev, commander of the Russian Federation border troops, began negotiating with Postanjyan.
"They said they're sorry and are ready to immediately financially compensate our broken camera. But we said, they first have to officially apologize to us for the incident, and second, provide compensation for the harm caused to us, and third, hold accountable that soldier who was serving at that time and on this site. They have to respond officially and not [simply] make verbal statements — though those officials were behaving quite appropriately and understood what happened and that the fault lies with their serviceman. They admitted they were in the wrong. Now for our demand to go through the official process. They hindered our campaign. If we didn’t say that we would appeal to law enforcement bodies, I don’t rule out [the possibility] that we would've also been subject to violence. This was an attempt at violence; they wanted to take away the video camera by force," Postanjyan told Aravot.am.
The MP confirms that the person who broke their camera was in a uniform marked FSB. "I approached him and in Russian asked for an explanation. They were communicating in Russian."
Postanjyan claims that the officers knew who was in the cars before they stopped them. "In the afternoon, they asked for a document from us and spoke with their superiors. After the conversation they told us, let them go; they can pass. We were checked a second time, a search of the vehicle, verifying our identities… When we asked them to explain their actions, we were faced with such obstacles. If we hadn't made a fuss — they were armed —, I don't rule out [the possibility] that there would've been additional harassment."
The MP said that later they told them that they're helping Armenian law enforcement agencies find a fugitive suspected of drug trafficking. The suspect is a citizen of Iran and was arrested and taken to Yerevan, but he has since escaped.