Activist blames Armenian leaders for police crackdown on protesters

Human rights activist Zhanna Aleksanyan held Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and National Assembly Speaker Alen Simonyan responsible for the police crackdown on demonstrators.

Riot police fired stun grenades outside the Armenian parliament on Wednesday as they clashed with protesters demanding Pashinyan’s resignation. As many as 101 civilians and police officers were injured in the clashes.

“Nikol Pashinyan and Alen Simonyan blatantly defended the use of brute force against peaceful protesters from the parliament podium, indicating that police officers fulfilled their orders,” the activist wrote on Facebook on Thursday.

“Reporters also suffered injuries. Incidentally, stun grenades were used during the events in Yerevan’s Sari Tagh neighborhood, leaving a large number of reporters and civilians injured. The criminal case into the incident was dropped immediately after Pashinyan came to power. No officer was held to account, and now he is using the same tactics,” Aleksanyan added.