The village of Kirants has been the epicenter of protests against the territorial concessions announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government on April 19. Many of its residents joined by people from other parts of the country have since been camped out in and outside the community, preventing officials from proceeding with preparations for the handover.
Security forces cleared the protest camp early in the morning. They also closed all roads leading to Kirants, allowing only its residents to enter and leave it. The roads remained closed as of late afternoon.
In a statement, the Armenian Interior Ministry said the police are “performing enhanced service” to allow relevant authorities to clear the area of landmines and carry out “geodetic measurements” at the new local section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
“That’s why the guys were detained,” the head of the Kirants village administration, Kamo Shahinian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
“They came early in the morning and rounded up and took away all young guys keeping a vigil to defend our village,” said one local woman whose grandson was among the detainees.
According to Garnik Danielian, an opposition lawmaker actively involved in the protests, the police made at least two dozen arrests. He said that many protesters were injured during the arrests. One of them clarified afterwards, though, that the injuries are not serious.
“They got out of buses and attacked us, beating, dragging away and reminding everyone of what happened last time,” said another.
All of the three dozen or so protesters were released from custody later in the morning.
“We call on our compatriots to continue peaceful disobedience actions in all regions and places of the Republic of Armenia in response to these brutal and illegal actions of the police,” read a statement released by the Tavush for the Homeland movement leading the protests.
Artur Sakunts, a human rights activist, criticized the police crackdowns on protesters in Kirants and elsewhere in the country, saying that seems to be becoming a pattern.
“The police continue to violate Armenian citizens’ freedom of assembly,” Sakunts told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Even if some participants of rallies do not act peacefully, only they should be detained.”
Pashinian effectively defended the use of force when he chaired a weekly session of his cabinet in Yerevan on Thursday.
“The police are a security agency, which means that they must have a legitimate right to use force,” said the prime minister, who himself had been jailed for inciting deadly clashes between security forces and antigovernment protesters in Yerevan in 2008.
The latest crackdown came just hours after Armenian state television aired an interview with Pashinian in which he again defended the territorial concessions. He said that he is stripping Azerbaijan of a reason to invade Armenia.
Opposition leaders say that Pashinian’s government is on the contrary encouraging Baku to demand more territory from Armenia and take or threaten military action for that purpose. Many affected Tavush villagers say the land handover will leave their communities dangerously exposed to Azerbaijani attacks.