A signboard welcoming travellers into breakaway Nagorno Karabakh proclaims a “Free Artsakh” (the traditional Armenian name for the region), but on Saturday a group of Armenian activists learned the limit to that freedom.
The activists, members of a group called Founding Parliament, were headed to Karabakh in a motorcade to talk about the expected risks of Armenia’s membership in the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union; in particular, fears that a customs-control could be installed between Armenia and Karabakh, which is claimed by Azerbaijan.
The topic is controversial, and, apparently, not one that Karabakh’s de-facto leader, Bako Sahakian, a onetime KGB employee, is eager to debate publicly. Particularly amidst an uptick in security-concerns, as fatal clashes with Azerbaijani forces continue.
Sahakian earlier had warned that the motorcade could bring undesired consequences to Karabakh.
But participants charge it was the Karabakhi police who did that.
As the motorcade on January 31 drove toward Karabakh, video footage filmed by Founding Parliament activists showed uniformed police demanding documents (claiming they were “checking for a raid”), and then starting to attack both the cars and their occupants.
On an overhead ridge, masked men with automatic rifles closely watched the clash, while various men in civilian clothes surfaced to join in. One of the witnesses, Aram Hakobian, claimed to Aravot.am that gunshots had been fired, and that the uniformed men had thrown the Armenian flags on the ground and stomped on them.
As the cars hurriedly drove away from the area, police smashed their windshields as a farewell.
Among those beaten included Zhirayr Sefilian, a decorated veteran of the Karabakh war, and prominent commander from the battle for Shushi. Founding Parliament claims that ten people were hospitalized. The numbers could not be independently verified in time for publication.
The Karabakh police acknowledge that their actions did cause some injuries, but claim they were required to stop "mass disturbances," ArmeniaNow reported.
Sahakian’s de-facto deputy chief of staff, Davit Babaian, alleged to RFE/RL's Armenian service that “the police were provoked.” He added that the rally participants had been “urged to refrain from their initiative,” but had not complied.
Video footage of the clash supplied by the activists (with dramatic music for a soundtrack) does not show such a provocation.
At a time of heightened strife with Azerbaijan, though, the violence against the activists has fuelled much bitterness within Armenia, which supplies the mainstay of Karabakh's military and financial support, and promotes its interests abroad.
Enraged, one of the founders of the movement for Karabakh’s independence from Azerbaijan, Igor Muradian returned a medal he had been granted by the region’s de-facto parliament in 2003. He charged that both Yerevan and Stepanakert “want to turn Karabakh into a Russian zone.”
The Armenian government has not commented officially on the violence, though one senior member of the ruling party (headed by President Serzh Sargsyan, a Karabakh native) has cautioned that Armenia's own political "disagreements" should not be "moved" to Karabakh.
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