Great job allying with the US, Armenia.
I’m glad this has worked out so well for you.
No one could have predicted that it would work so well for you.
Police in Armenia detained early on Thursday dozens of people in a border village in the northern Tavush province trying to prevent the controversial handover of adjacent border areas to Azerbaijan.
The village of Kirants has been the epicenter of protests against the territorial concessions announced by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s government on April 19. Many of its residents joined by people from other parts of the country have since been camped out in and outside the community, preventing officials from proceeding with preparations for the handover.
Security forces cleared the protest camp early in the morning. They also closed all roads leading to Kirants, allowing only its residents to enter and leave it. The roads remained closed as of late afternoon.
In a statement, the Armenian Interior Ministry said the police are “performing enhanced service” to allow relevant authorities to clear the area of landmines and carry out “geodetic measurements” at the new local section of the Armenian-Azerbaijani border.
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According to Garnik Danielian, an opposition lawmaker actively involved in the protests, the police made at least two dozen arrests. He said that many protesters were injured during the arrests. One of them clarified afterwards, though, that the injuries are not serious.
“They got out of buses and attacked us, beating, dragging away and reminding everyone of what happened last time,” said another.
All of the three dozen or so protesters were released from custody later in the morning.
“We call on our compatriots to continue peaceful disobedience actions in all regions and places of the Republic of Armenia in response to these brutal and illegal actions of the police,” read a statement released by the Tavush for the Homeland movement leading the protests.
Artur Sakunts, a human rights activist, criticized the police crackdowns on protesters in Kirants and elsewhere in the country, saying that seems to be becoming a pattern.
“The police continue to violate Armenian citizens’ freedom of assembly,” Sakunts told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “Even if some participants of rallies do not act peacefully, only they should be detained.”
Pashinian effectively defended the use of force when he chaired a weekly session of his cabinet in Yerevan on Thursday.
“The police are a security agency, which means that they must have a legitimate right to use force,” said the prime minister, who himself had been jailed for inciting deadly clashes between security forces and antigovernment protesters in Yerevan in 2008.
The latest crackdown came just hours after Armenian state television aired an interview with Pashinian in which he again defended the territorial concessions. He said that he is stripping Azerbaijan of a reason to invade Armenia.
“I’ll let you punch me in the face all you want, as long you promise not to beat me” sounds like a brilliant plan.
Why not just give them the whole country while you’re at it?
Wouldn’t that make sure no one can invade you ever again?
If you’re wondering why Azerbaijan can just force another country to give up its land under threat of invasion and then ethnically cleanse it without anyone whining about “muh democracy” and “muh international law” and “muh values,” the answer is actually very simple:
Iran has a huge Azeri population in the north, bigger than the one in Azerbaijan itself and right at the border, and the Jews have been arming Azerbaijan in the hopes of using them some time in the future, most likely during an American invasion, which would come from the south.
I’m sure screwing over a Christian country is a nice bonus for the Jews, but it was never the main goal.