Gasparian denies reports of violence against Shant Harutyunian

In an interview with RFE/RL Armenian service, Armenian Police Chief Vladimir Gasparian refuted the reports that he and his deputy Hunan Poghosian used violence against Shant Harutyunian and Karabakh war veteran Vardan Vardanian who were detained after the November 5 clashes on Mashtots Avenue in Yerevan.

“Logic is absent here. First, there were over a thousand people in the Central police station. Secondly, if there was such a case in the last two years, then this one is also true,” Gasparian said, adding, “Of course, no such thing could have happened. The commission, the detention center – everything is recorded everywhere”.

“This is also a result of morbid imagination. If the police chief had allowed himself to do such a thing, what would have been left of Shant? Where is the logic? Besides, there were deputies and other people there,” Gasparian said.

In response to the remark that Shant Harutyunian declared prior to the march that they were armed with Molotov cocktails, stones, sticks and other items, while the police for their part issued a statement to the effect that Shant Harutyunian made calls for violence in Liberty Square, and asked whether the clashes could have been prevented, Vladimir Gasparian said: “We made statements and we prevented. If you think that at the moment when we make a statement, we also put handcuffs on them and take them to a police station, you are mistaken. We followed all the actions and the police acted in accordance with a plan worked out in advance”.

“The actions of police were lawful. Did you notice that policemen didn’t have even rubber batons?”

Commenting on what happened, Gasparian said: “It was a criminal offence, rather than a political action. What revolution are you talking about? If our society is so sick that it considers Shant’s idle talk and the actions of some criminal elements as a revolution, woe to society”.

In his words, no one, except for law enforcers, was injured in the clashes. V. Gasparian didn’t rule out that the number of detainees will grow.