Ombudsman of Armenia Karen Andreasyan expresses concern over the Monday clashes of the Police and public activists rallying against electricity price hikes. The human rights defender says in a statement that providing public order through violent treatment of peaceful protesters demonstrates the low professionalism of the Police. "We expect adequate measures of punishment for the police officers that applied force against public activists," Andreasyan says.
At the same time, the human rights defender mentions inappropriate behavior of some activists. There are video records openly demonstrating how some activists insult and push police officers. Exercise of the human rights does not implie anarchy and disrespect for the law - enforcement officers. The ombudsman promises to give his assessment of the incident after he receives all the necessary explanations from the Police.
To recall, dozens of activists are beaten up and detained after protest actions against regular rise of the electricity tariff in Armenia on 23 June. It is noteworthy that many police officers are not properly prepared for such actions and they easily fall into hysteria and lose self-control, which shows that they lack professionalism. Actually, the Police leadership needs to tackle this problem. Meanwhile, last week President Serzh Sargsyan said in an interview with the Armenian Public Television that the conflicts of views on the urgent problems in the country must be reflected in the press and in the parliament. Under no circumstance those issues should lead to clashes between the police and the public, the president said.