Avetik Chalabyan: What happened outside the MFA building was an act of provocation, an opportunity to isolate the most active participants of the movement

There was an act of provocation at the beginning of the police actions which gave them grounds for beating people. It was a targeted operation; an opportunity to simply isolate the most active participants of the movement. Coordinator of the Hayakve initiative Avetik Chalabyan said this to ABC Media, referring to the clashes outside the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Using brute force is one thing, but beating people is another. Twenty-nine people have been arrested. They will try to trump up charges of mass unrest,” Chalabyan said.

He noted that what happened was an act of provocation. Bottles were thrown toward the police, but Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan had nothing to do with that all; he was simply trying to calm people down.

“It was done by someone, whose identity is not yet known. I guess he is either an irrational person or did it on purpose. We will come to know this of course,” Chalabyan noted.

According to him, it is difficult to define the extent of brutalities outside the MFA building.