Epress.am News from Armenia
On Wednesday, May 27, the protest action of the parents of soldiers who died under non-combat conditions in the Armenian army attracted a great deal of media attention: protest participants were being interviewed by reporters of 6-7 media outlets.
Today, the parents of the deceased soldiers, whose protest had not received much media coverage over the past few years, told about the criminal proceedings into the deaths of their sons, emphasizing the main aspects of their protest – expert analysis showed their sons had been murdered; investigators have hushed up the cases; officials have been indifferent and unable to give substantial answers to their questions.
Anahit Mkrtchyan, mother of Arayik Avetisyan who died in the army in 2001, voiced their main demand: a meeting with Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, who, as stated by Mkrtchyan, bears responsibility for what happens in the Armenian army.
Apart from the journalists and Nelly Harutyunyan, member of Public Monitoring Group at the Detention Facilities of the RA, only 1-2 persons had come to the protest action on the opposite sidewalk of the RA presidential residence on Baghramyan 26. On the other hand, at least a dozen law enforcement officers had gathered at the site, plus the 25-30 officers of the “Angels' battalion” of the RA police, who had not previously been seen at the parents' protest actions.
The presence of the “angels” was probably due to the fact that, after police officers used violence against the mothers of soldiers during a number of their protests, social activists on “Facebook” created a public event “Protest action in support of the mothers of killed soldiers” scheduled for the 27th of May, and 346 users had marked they were going to attend the action.
As it turned out, more than 40 police officers had to exercise control over only about 15 journalists and protest participants.
