"Suddenly it will begin here"

As news about battles in Nagorno -Karabakh, they met in Yerevan. Report "Medusa"

After the start of the “military operation” of the Azerbaijani army in the Nagorno -Karabakh on September 19, the purpose of which Baku calls the return of control over his international recognized territory, shares of protest began in Yerevan. Despite the fact that Armenia (like all countries included in the UN) officially does not recognize Artsakh , Yerevan has been supporting this state education for many years. And most of the country's citizens advocate either for the accession of Karabakh to Armenia, or for an independent (from Azerbaijan), the status of the territory. Medusa visited the shares in Yerevan and talked with the participants in the protests about who was to blame for the shelling of Stepanakert .

Most of the protesters took to the streets of Yerevan after seven in the evening, but the first shares began in the afternoon, that is, about an hour after the first news about the shelling of Stepanakert by the Azerbaijani army.

Two main points of the sideling of protesters in the city are the square of the republic (near the building of the Armenian government) and Surb Grigor Lusavorich , where the Russian embassy is located.

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By five in the evening near the building of the Russian Embassy - about twenty people and about the same number of police officers. Two protesters hold in their hands the flag of the unrecognized Republic of Artsakh - and passing by motorists, as well as pedestrians walking on the other side of the street, they are almost not visible. The protesters stood right behind the police "Skoda" - and it turns out that they can mainly see the police and Russian diplomats themselves (if they decide to look out the window).

When the Medusa correspondent speaks with the participants in the action, they silently nod to a woman standing nearby - this is the chairman of the party "Country for Life" by Mane Tandian. Elections have recently been held in Yerevan, and its portrait can still be seen on many lightboxes in the city.

Tandian explains so why she and her supporters came to the Russian embassy:

Because Russian peacekeepers are in Artsakh, where Armenians are now killing before their eyes. They stand and look. For some reason they are inactive, although they must protect them.

Nearby walks, throwing the flag of Artsakh on his shoulders, another protesting. His name is Grair, he is 47 years old, and to the question where he works, he answers: “I do not work, and then adds, as if this is a profession: - I am an Armenian.”

Grair is a Yerevan, who has "friends and children of dead friends now in Artsakh." He, as a military physician, “spent 20 years on a business trip in Nagorno Karabakh. “[There now] there is ethnic cleaning, they kill children ,” he says. -This is all [the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol] Pashinyan and his reform. He says that Artsakh is Azerbaijan. For me, he is [Pashinyan] Turk . We must fight - this is the only good policy. ”

Grair believes that “Armenians are a heroic nation”, “very brave” and “always fought”, and in the 2020 war “we did not lose, Pashinyan lost”.

Statements similar to these (as well as claims against Russian peacekeepers), today you can hear from many people in Yerevan. And approximately the same rhetoric is used by critics of the current Prime Minister Nikola Pashinyan for the last three years, which have passed since the 44-day war of the fall of 2020.

After eight in the evening, the Russian Embassy in Yerevan will gather more - they will even take part of the road. A column with the banners of Armenia and Artsakh, led by a pickup with the symbols of the National Democratic Pole, will join the gathered there. And besides the slogans about Pashinyan's betrayal, the protesters will begin to chant "Russia - enemy!" And "Russia is the occupier!"

And Russian diplomats will complain that the demonstrators locked them in the embassy.

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As for the square of the republic, about three thousand people gathered here by five in the evening. Even after a couple of hours, when their number will increase by more than one and a half times, all of them will be able to freely accommodate only a quarter of this vast space in the center of Yerevan. But the area will be at the disposal of the protesters entirely: in the afternoon, activists technically occupied all the city streets going to it and blocked the movement of cars.

Somewhere a group of young people simply sat on the roadway. In another place, the girls settled on a city bench set across the road. The entrance from the three-lane Street of Vazgen Sargsyan was blocked by a single person-a thin short man. At first, a little boy (perhaps his son) sat at his feet), but the child was tired of it, and he began to run around the square - from a motionless father towards the protesters and back.

The police do not interfere with blocking the movement of cars. Most part of the security forces lined up with a line on the steps of the government building. Someone stayed in cars and buses nearby. The other part, including several traffic police crews, stood behind the groups of activists who blocked the square, and shows motorists so that they would not go further and not conflict with the protesters.

Everything that happens on the very square of the republic is more like a city holiday. People gather in the company, meet friends and acquaintances, men squeeze their hands and, according to the Armenian tradition, kiss on the cheek. Many came with children, including very small ones. Young people are sitting on curbs, lawns and just on asphalt.

The latest news is discussed not only in Armenian, but also in Russian, and sometimes even in French. One of the participants in the action tells friends in Russian: “[It is] this cattle separated Artsakh. I am an Armenian, never separated [myself from the Armenians of the Nagorno -Karabakh], we are all Armenians. And then what? [To give in to Azerbaijan City] Jermuk? " Who the woman calls the "cattle" is not difficult to guess.

The most active protesters are standing close to the government building and a police cordon. The speakers are placed on the steps next to the line of the security forces and speak to the megaphone. The most frequent slogans that the square picks up: “Nicole is a traitor!”, “Artsakh!” And "Armenia!".

When the crowd near the government building is once again chanting "Artsakh! Artsakh! Artsakh! ”, Frightened by a loud sound, a one -year -old girl in her mother in her arms begins to cry. The woman turns to the car parked right there, knocks her nails on tinted glass, the girl sees her reflection - and immediately calms down. But the cry of the crowd scares her again - and the mother is forced to repeat her trick.

An older girl quickly walks with her mother through the crowd right near the government building. They masterfully maneuver in the dense part - between protesters and security forces. The girl (her name is Jan, and she is four years old) carries in the hand of a white toy hare. Her mother Emma says that the family lived in Nagorno -Karabakh, they "had a house, everything is very good." Three years ago, because of the war, they left for Yerevan, but then they still returned to Stepanakert again. Due to the blockade that began in 2022, I had to leave again.

Unlike everyone with whom Medusa spoke before and after, Emma does not scold Pashinyan and does not swear the Turkish. She looks endlessly tired. “I don’t care, there is nothing to lose,” she says. And he repeats: - Anyway, it’s not at all interesting, no matter what will happen. If only the relatives were alive and well. ”

Emma talks about her eight-year-old son and about how he returned to Nagorny Karabakh after the 2020 war: the child had stress, and the familiar situation and friends helped to cope with him. “Then 90 percent of the Armenians returned to their home. We trusted Russia - we decided that if there are Russians, no one can offend us, ”she says.

When asked if she is not afraid to come to a child with a child, Emma replies: “I have no one to leave her with [in Yerevan]. And one at home is dangerous. Suddenly the war will begin here too? I should be nearby. "

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Lusine Manukyan is one of those activists who blocked the area of ​​the republic from cars from all sides in the afternoon. She is dressed in a T -shirt with an ornament - the same as on the flag of Artsakh. Lusine says that he has been wearing her for five years, that is, since “this government has come that has surrendered our lands to the Turks.”

She says about the current blows of the Azerbaijani army that from the Nagorno -Karabakh "no one will drive us away." But at the same time adds that "our army was betrayed."

Despite the fact that the actions of Lusine and parts of the protesters on the square look clearly organized by some kind of political force, the activist claims that he is not connected with any parties. “I am just Armenian. We have an independent protest, we ourselves decided to hold an action against the government. [Because] we have [in Nagorno -Karabakh] brothers and sisters, many fought and died. ” But when the Medusa correspondent clarifies which of the politicians Lusine Manukyan would vote if she doesn’t like Pashinyan so much, the activist instantly replies: “For Kocharian!”

Robert Kocharyan is a former prime minister and president of the first unrecognized Artsakh, and then Armenia. He still remains one of the most influential politicians in the country. In particular, he heads the party association “Armenia Alliance” , among the main slogans of which is the “self -determination of Artsakh”. Kocharian also participates in protest against the policy of Nikol Pashinyan in relation to an unrecognized NKR.

In the crowd, which gathered at the government building on the Republic Square, apparently, there are many supporters of Kocharian. And they are exactly among the most active protesters - those who enter into direct clashes with a police line standing on the steps of the government building.

When the crowd tried to break into the residence (the cordon was eventually survived), two participants in the action began to swear among themselves: the 20-year-old guy (he just threw a plastic bottle at the police) screams at 50. When the Medusa correspondent approaches them, the guy has already led a comrade, and the woman explains what happened: it was:

- He just wanted to brag, but I decided to calm down.

- Maybe he is Kocharyanovsky?

- We are all Kocharyanovsky.

She does not call herself, but she says that she is a “public figure” and consists in the unification “mother of Armenia”, which also enjoys the support of Robert Kocharian.

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Oddly enough, there are quite few flags at a rally at the government building and there are practically no banners. The exception is a home -made poster with the words about the strength of the Armenian people against the background of the monument “We and our mountains” (this is a symbol of Nagorno -Karabakh). The poster holds in his hands 66-year-old Elbrus Bodagyan. He fought in the first Karabakh war in the early 1990s, was wounded in the leg. Like many protesters, Bodagyan accuses Prime Minister Pashinyan of betraying the Armenians of the Nagorno -Karabakh and the fact that the politician "passed the Armenian lands with one signature."

When asked why, in this case, the Pashinyans and his party won the elections after the war of 2020 and formed the government again, Bodagyan replies: “Because he [the prime minister] speaks the language of lies. Sweet lies like more than bitter truth. " He is sure that three years ago the Armenians needed to “gather everyone” and fight with Azerbaijan.

Almost the word for the word of the same words is repeated by another veteran of the Karabakh war - but not the first, but the second, 2020. His name is Karo, he is 44 years old. He used to grow bread and grapes, he had a garden in the Martuninsky district of an unrecognized republic. Now it is difficult to work Karo: he has lost both legs. Karo left the Nagorno -Karabakh to the blockade and believes that the Armenians had to defeat Azerbaijanis in the second Karabakh, three years ago. Why this did not happen, he explains this:

The whole people did not fought, as [during the First Karabakh War] in the 1990s. And now many do not want to [fight]. 10–20 percent fought, not everyone came.

Sitting in a wheelchair and reasoning that, in his opinion, it should be made to the leadership of Armenia and the unrecognized Artsakh, Karo says: "We must put the people on their feet."

"Jellyfish"