Colonel Valeri Osipian
The Armenian police have urged protesters campaigning against rising electricity prices in Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue to unblock the central thoroughfare tonight, warning of possible use of force to “restore public order”.
Colonel Valeri Osipian, deputy chief of Yerevan’s police, described the Saturday statement by President Serzh Sargsyan offering a compromise plan on the electricity price hikes as “victory” both for the demonstrators and the entire society, including the police, and recommended that No To Plunder activists “return to the framework of law”.
The protesters want the unpopular decision by the utilities commission to raise electricity tariffs by over 16 percent beginning in August to be scrapped. But at a meeting with senior government officials late on Saturday Sargsyan suggested that the Armenian government will take upon itself the subsidizing of the increase until it gets the conclusion of an international audit of the Russian-owned Electric Networks of Armenia company.
Activists of the No To Plunder pressure group who have been holding protests in Yerevan since June 19 did not react immediately to the announcement, calling for “nationwide mobilization” on Sunday to determine their attitude towards the government plan and decide on further actions.
Talking to media hours before the rally, Colonel Osipyan said: “Within the framework of the law the police will use means to restore public order in Baghramian Avenue. The offenders will be punished.”
The police already used force against demonstrators on June 23, but the heavy-handed reaction then only angered people and they turned out in even larger numbers to get barricaded in Baghramian Avenue later that night.
The police have not used strong-arm methods since then, but have kept reminding the protesters that while peaceful their rallies violate Armenia’s law on freedom of assembly.