Thousands of people led by Archbishop Bagrat Galstanian gathered on June 12 on a street outside the Armenian parliament building to demand Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s resignation following his territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. Scuffles broke out there moments before security forces hurled dozens of stun grenades into the crowd. At least 83 protesters and 8 journalists were injured as a result.
The use of force was strongly condemned by not only Galstanian’s opposition-backed movement but also 17 mostly Western-funded NGOs. In a joint statement, the latter call it “unnecessary, disproportionate and illegal.”
Armenia’s Investigative Committee defended the crackdown, saying that it stopped “mass disturbances.” Echoing Pashinian’s claims, it also said the protesters tried to break through police cordons to storm the parliament.
Only one man was accused of participating in the “mass disturbances.” Fourteen other protesters were charged with “hooliganism” that mainly took the form of plastic bottles and other objects thrown at the riot police.
Two days after the violence, the Investigative Committee announced the launch of a criminal inquiry into “the proportionality and legality” of the police actions. The law-enforcement agency headed by one of Pashinian’s trusted lieutenants has not indicted anyone as part of that probe.
Zaruhi Hovannisian, a human rights activist, said on Thursday that the investigators’ failure to prosecute any policemen is politically motivated. Pashinian’s claim that the riot police acted in a “legitimate and professional” way preluded any objective investigation into the violence, Hovannisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
Ruben Melikian, an opposition-linked lawyer representing some of the indicted protesters, similarly deplored a “lack of political will” to conduct such a probe. He said the Armenian security apparatus is now primarily concerned with helping Pashinian cling to power, rather than enforcing the law.
Fifty-seven of the injured individuals sustained shrapnel wounds which experts say could have been caused by powerful Zarya-3 grenades that were not authorized by the Armenian Health Ministry at that point. Health Minister Anahit Avanesian formally added the Russian-made grenades to the ministry’s list of crowd control equipment only on June 26, two weeks after the crackdown.
According to information posted on a Russian defense industry website, Zarya-3 is “designed to temporarily suppress mental stability of armed criminals with acoustic and light effects.” Former senior police officials in Yerevan say that they were never used for crowd control under Armenia’s previous governments.
Both the Investigative Committee and the Armenian police have refused to specify the type of the explosive devices heavily used against the anti-government demonstrators on June 12.
Dozens of other protesters were also seriously injured by the police after Archbishop Galstanian launched his campaign for regime change on May 9. No policemen have been charged over those incidents, including the May 27 beating by members of a special police squad of an opposition parliamentarian, Ashot Simonian.
