Galoust Sahakyan: “Bringing the busiest thoroughfare in Yerevan, Baghramyan Avenue, to a continuous standstill cannot be the only form of struggle."

While lauding the thousands of young protesters who’ve taken to the streets of Yerevan and other Armenian towns to express their anger over a recently approved electricity rate hike, Armenian National Assembly President Galoust Sahakyan, in a statement released today, nevertheless noted that “bringing the busiest thoroughfare in Yerevan, Baghramyan Avenue, to a continuous standstill cannot be the only form of struggle."

Sahakyan categorized the “No to Plunder” movement’s actions, which have continued for ten days, as peaceful and within the law, adding that the positions and stance of  the youthof the independence generation, the powerful guarantor of our country’s future and their adopted “Free and Independent Armenia” slogan is to be commended.

Sahakyan continues by saying that the struggle for democracy waged by civil society and to monitor the workings of the government by the public is an effective mechanism.

The parliament speaker also calls for dialog between the public and state institutions, arguing that only through such dialog and mutual influence can Armenia solve the problems it faces and strengthen the foundations of the state.

Sahakyan, in his statement, also doesn’t rule out that the police used excessive force on the morning of June 23 (the first night of the Baghramyan protest) and says that each incident needs to be thoroughly examined and the guilty brought to justice.

In conclusion, Sahakyan calls on the members of the “No to Plunder” movement to stay within the confines of the law, not to escalate the situation, and to relocate the protest to a more rational locale for dialog and conversation in order to jointly solve Armenia’s socio-economic and system-wide problems and to affirm the legitimacy and vitality of the slogan ‘We are masters of our country’.