Governor of Ararat region Alik Sargsyan: “The reason of the conflict during Ter-Petrosyan’s pre-election meeting in Artashat was the fact that they were insulting the others”.
– Mr. Sargsyan, can you tell us why such incident took place just in your region?
– I don’t know, but I didn’t see any reasons that would cause such incident. I believe that there hasn’t been anything there. I think that people should know what really has happened there: they arrived by cars, got off the cars and as always Nikol Pashinyan started his speech in a very aggressive manner and also he addressed personal insults in his speech.
– Concerning whom?
– As always, concerning Hovik Abrahamyan. I don’t understand how he can be connected with this. We were sitting in our offices. Pashinyan started speaking different nicknames and personal insults concerning Abrahamyan and people got angry and told them to speak about themselves but not the others… This is all what happened there. They forced those women out of the public. Certainly they also hit those women. During the conflict, when Aram Sargsyan was making a speech, Smbat Ayvazyan came to me and said that something serious could happen as people were yelling there and asked me to interfere not to let the situation out of control. I asked Smbat to go and ask the speakers not to insult anyone; I told that they could speak whatever they wanted but without insulting anyone. I told them that it was clear that if they insulted Hovik Abrahamyan in Artashat people would get angry. Hovik Abrahamyan has done a lot of good things for the people of this region and people can’t bear it any more if they come and insult him all the time. They were speaking mainly about Hovik Abrahamyan on purpose in order to create tension. When Aram Sargsyan started speaking about Hovik Abrahamyan people made a noise and some women hit each other. At that time I went down. When I went down Levon Ter-Petrosyan was making a speech and asking where I was and petitioning me to go to them. When I was approaching the scene through the public they were calling my name and saying that it was provocation. At that time Ter-Petrosyan said, “Where are you governor? You are a hooligan too. Come here”. Can you imagine? They are saying such things and want the public not to get angry. I run on the scene, took the microphone from him and petitioned people not to pay attention to any provocations. I said to people that it was just provocation and asked them not to do anything and let them finish their event and go from the city. I also said that the person who had insulted me did not have any moral values and also emphasized that he had lost moral values at least in our region. It is all what I said there. The governor is not a hooligan, he is a normal person who is respected by people. I watched everything there after my speech and people were quiet and did not do anything; they were waiting for them to finish their job and leave. During that time there were police officers there too. However, Ter-Petrosyan continued with his tactics and again insulted Abrahamyan. The main topic of their speech was to insult him through a red line. After that even they came to me one by one, apologized for the incident and left the region.
– Who?
– The organizers. They apologized and said that there had been misunderstanding. Eventually I didn’t at least understand what they really wanted. They felt that people were making a noise when they heard them insulting Abrahamyan, but they continued with that and asked me to calm them down. Their purpose was creating an incident there. If I go to someone’s place and speak there rudely it is natural that they may beat me or insult me in answer. Those people either could not or did not want to understand it. I asked them to behave them well at the beginning too. What can I do if it is their main tactics?
– Who threw bottles and stones to them?
– What bottles? What stones? There has not been anything like that. I was standing above and watching everything there.
– How many people had come to attend the event?
– 400-600 persons, 400-450 out of which had come with them. They came there at least by 50-60 cars and brought that group of people with them.
– Which group?
– The group of provocateurs. I have asked the police head to handle that matter and he has already instructed the police to investigate the case. They told me that there was a conflict with one person and that they were trying to find out who the participants were.
– It is said that the incident was initiated by the son of Hovik Abrahamyan’s brother Johnik Abrahamyan.
– Can you tell me what relationship those names can have with the incident? J. Abrahamyan’s son was not there. No one can say that he was there. They have brought the group of provocateurs with them and there were many such people there. As for the city, the representatives of Yerkrapah organization stood up and tried to prevent them. They were surrounded in order not to let them interfere. They were insulting even the citizens of Artashat and said that their supporters were cowards too. I don’t know. What does this mean? They spoke very badly about the president of the country and Serzh Sargsyan. They were insulting and then coming to me and trying to make me come down by saying that it did not concern me. They said that they had called me a hooligan by chance and tried to convince me that it did not concern me. They have lost their heads. It seems to be that they can insult the leaders of the country and the government, but the people were complaining. They are speaking about political culture during meetings, but they are ignoring that principle. Last time Haik Babukhanyan did such thing and opened fire at people, and they announced that the citizens of Artashat were riotous and had prevented them. This time these people tried to do such provocative thing too.
– Where were the policemen? Why did you have to stop them? They say there were no policemen during the rally.
– They were there. There were about 10-15 policemen in uniforms and also other police officers. You can see policemen in uniforms on TV when covering that event. Levon Ter-Petrosyan said he didn’t see policemen in uniforms. Why do the police have to be in uniforms during rallies? When there are policemen they say that we have instructed them to be there and control them, and when they are not in uniforms, they say there are no policemen. I don’t understand what they want. They need to put the blame on someone and definitely have decided to put the blame on the police this time.