Translated material
Frantic from Sasun
Who is the Giraire Sephilyan, whose supporters seized the police department in Yerevan
On the morning of July 17, armed people took hostages to the police department in Yerevan. They called themselves members of the Constituent Parliament movement and demanded the resignation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, as well as the liberation of the opposition policy Girard Sefilyan. In June 2016, he was arrested for illegal storage of weapons. Sephilyan, along with other oppositionists, including the presidential candidate in the 2013 elections, Raffi Ovannisyan, created the New Armenia movement. "Medusa" says what is known about Sephilyan.
Zhirair Sephilyan, whose supporters seized the police department in Yerevan, was arrested on June 20, 2016 on suspicion of illegal transportation and storage of weapons. Then, the Investigative Committee of Armenia stated that two Kalashnikov and 120 cartridges were found in an accident that got into an accident. According to the IC, which Sephilyan himself rejected, he, together with accomplices, planned the armed seizure of the Yerevan TV tower and a number of administrative buildings.
However, the accusation of Sephilyan was charged only under Article 235 of the Criminal Code of Armenia (“illegal acquisition, sale, storage, transportation or wearing of weapons, ammunition, explosives”), according to which he threatens a maximum of six years. In addition to Sephilyan, the charges were brought by seven people.
The story of the struggle of Sephilyan and his supporters against the Armenian authorities lasts more than 10 years. He was born in 1967 in Lebanese Beirut. During the civil war in Lebanon, he participated in the self -defense of the Armenian community. In the early 1990s he returned to Armenia, and during the war in Nagorno-Karabakh he headed the Shushinsky special battalion, who participated in the liberation of the city of Shushi from the Azerbaijani forces. For actions in the war, he received the Order of the "Battle Cross of the 1st degree".
In the 2000s, Sephilyan began political activities and immediately went into an irreconcilable opposition to the ruling regime. The first stage of his struggle arrested on December 10, 2006 ended on charges of public calls for a violent change of constitutional order. As a result, he was convicted of illegal storage of weapons (a similar article with similar accusations, Sefilyan threatens and 10 years later) for a year and a half.
In 2015, Sephilyan entered the Political Council of an opposition coalition called New Armenia. In addition to him, the closest ally of Sephilyan Garevin Chukazyan, who is headed by the “Constituent Parliament”, the head of the Union of Political Sciences, Amayak Ovannysyan and a member of the Council of the Civil Movement “Get up, Armenia!” Andrias Gukasyan. In addition, the presidential candidate in the 2013 election, the leader of the Heritage Party, Raffi Ovannisyan, entered the political officer.
If Sephilyan in Armenia is considered a radical, then Ovannisyan, who scored 36.75% of the vote in the presidential election in 2013, is not inclined to decisive action. In those elections, many expected from him attempts by power seizure of power, but he insisted on his original concept of the “Privet Redia”. “I do not speak in terms of ultimatum or blood, this will not happen. This is a campaign of love, greetings. This is a Privet revolution in Armenia, ”Ovannisyan argued.
Not everyone in Armenia understands why Ovannysyan generally entered the coalition with such a politician as Sephilyan. “Raffi stopped understanding for a long time, he was rushing about all the time,” political scientist Samvel Martirosyan told Medusa. “Raffi unites everyone who is trying to fight the ruling regime. [But the seizure of the police department] are supporters and friends specifically Sephilyan. “Heritage” is in no way involved in this. Sephilyan supports certain circles in the diaspora, in Armenia he has few supporters, ”Blogger Isabella Abgaryan explained to Medusa, who in 2012 ran for the Armenia parliament on the“ Heritage ”list.
The official goal of creating New Armenia was an attempt to prevent a referendum in December 2015 on the transition of Armenia to a parliamentary form of government. The opposition was sure that the change in the Constitution needed President Serge Sargsyan in order to transfer to the prime minister’s chair and continue to rule the country after the end of his next presidential term. Sargsyan himself before the referendum, however, said that after the next elections he would leave politics.
The referendum took place , and about 63% of voters voted to change the constitution. "New Armenia" did not agree with the results. On December 6, 2015, a rally was held on Freedom Square (about 700 people took part in it), on December 11 and 18, several hundred supporters of the movement went marching along Yerevan, but by the end of the year the protests subsided. “It is possible to achieve justice in an authoritarian country only through civil disobedience,” Sephilyan said in December.
“Sephilyan is known for his radical approaches. He enjoys authority among some of the war veterans in Karabakh and is an irreconcilable opponent of concessions in the Karabakh question, ”Martirosyan said.
It was Karabakh “New Armenia” who chose Sargsyan as a new pain point shortly before the arrest of Sephilyan. After the aggravation of the situation in Nagorno -Karabakh in April 2016, Sargsyan, according to the opposition, decided to “surrender” Nagornoi Karabakh. “Trying to hide the system failure in the field of foreign policy and security, Serge Sargsyan took a frankly defeated position and actually helps the actions of the enemy state to the detriment of the external security of the Republic of Armenia,” said the leader of the Constituent Parliament, Chukaszyan. Sephilyan, the German Wave reports , turned to the Armenians with an appeal to take weapons and return 800 hectares of land that Azerbaijani conquered from Armenians in April.
Many experts claimed that Sephilyan was arrested precisely because of the position of Karabakh. “Sephilyan was the first to voiced the problem of lost territories during the April War in Artsakh. His activity became an obstacle to the authorities who headed for territorial concessions, ” said human rights activist Jeanne Aleksanyan.
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The responsibility for the seizure of the police department in Yerevan on July 17 took the Movement of the Constituent Parliament. However, Samvel Martirosyan specified in a conversation with Medusa that the capture was organized by “guys from a separate movement, which is called by the name of the Armenian epic Sasna Tsrer , which literally means“ frantic from the sasun ”.”
The hostage invaders announced the beginning of a full -fledged uprising against the Sargsyan regime, but it quickly turned out that they limited themselves to only one police station. On the afternoon of July 17, the arrests of members of the Constituent Parliament were arrested in Armenia.
“Sephilyan is already sitting precisely for trying to an armed uprising. And now his supporters decided to continue the case. In society, anti -plate moods are strong. At the same time, many people are unlikely to be ready for violence. In favor of the authorities, instability at the front [with Azerbaijan] works. For many, this is a braking factor, ”Martirosyan concluded.
Ilya Azar