The civic initiative Founding Parliament (formerly known as Preparliament) issued a statement on January 31 regarding an attack in Berdzor against its members who were taking part in a car rally. The organization said that several men in civilian clothes in police vehicles, including masked police officers ambushed and attacked the participants of the car rally, who were traveling from Yerevan to Nagorno Karabakh.
Founding Parliament said that the attackers, including policemen, smashed their car windows and confiscated and ripped Armenian flags they were carrying.
According to reports, nearly no one was spared in the attack including reporters and women. Anushavan Shahnazaryan, a journalist with Noyan Tapan was severely beaten and transferred to hospital. Former Karabakh war veteran Jirayr Sefilyan and all the other participants of the car rally received numerous injuries.
Founding Parliament’s initiative “100th Anniversary Without this Regime” had organized several car rallies before in Armenia. When it became known that they were planning a car rally from Yerevan to Nagorno Karabakh, they say they received several warnings from certain people in Karabakh that they would not be allowed to enter Artsakh territory and that all their activities would be obstructed.
In the statement, Founding Parliament said: “We received information that following a directive of the regime, a number of people assembled in Berdzor. They included men in civilian clothes and masked police officers, who claimed to be war veterans; they were were there to obstruct our entry into Artsakh. False information was spread to those in Berdzor that we were armed. In addition to this, they were trying to convince people that the car rally, led by Jirayr Sefilyan, was a plot to try to persuade soldiers to no longer serve in Artsakh and return, in order to abandon Artsakh and leave it unprotected.”
The organizers say they were not armed and they were en route to Nagorno Karabakh with their wives and children.
On January 30, Jirayr Sefilyan had written the following Facebook status: “I am coming with my family. Dear Armenians of Artsakh, on January 31, 2015, the 100th Anniversary Without this Regime initiative is coming to Artsakh to inform people about our plans. We want you to also participate in the building of our country’s future. We want you to demand accountability from us and we will be accountable to you. Artsakh is my home. I am coming with my family, together with my wife and children.”
The NKR police released a statement later in the day about the incident in Berdzor. They said that the car rally had garnered a “negative response from wide segments of the public in Artsakh” and unknown individuals had decided to prevent the participants of the car rally from entering the territory of Nagorno Karabakh.
The statement went on to say that given these circumstances and possible violations of public order, the NKR police had placed units along several sections of the Goris-Stepanakert highway. They said that the participants of the car rally were asked by police officers stationed on the highway to turn back because their initiative could cause “social tension” in Artsakh. “However, several participants of the car rally, opposing our request, resorted to illegal activities and continued provocations, even after warnings to desist by police,” the statement read. “To prevent possible mass unrest, the police of NKR were forced to resort to corresponding measures conferred to them by law. Sadly, there were injuries, however no one’s life is in danger.”
