Stepan Safaryan: We are dealing with legal nihilism (video)
Sunday’s municipal elections in Yerevan did not reflect the general moods in the Armenian capital, says political analyst Stepan Safaryan. The head of the Armenian Institute for International and Security Issues (AIISA) says neither the parliamentary nor the municipal elections were democratic. He calls ‘a blatant crime’ Sunday’s attack and violence against mayoral candidate Zaruhi Postanjyan and her teenage daughter a campaign office of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). Postanjyan and her daughter entered on May 14 the HHK office in Avan district just the moment when HHK activists were looking through what she described as lists of residents who promised to pay for Yerevan’s incumbent Mayor Taron Margaryan. Seeing the 'unexpected guests' they hid the lists in a drawer and refused to open it. Moreover, they forced Postanjyan and journalists out of the office, saying nobody had the right to enter their office without permission. “They wanted to say that they had no right to go any further. The revealed facts could be found in other HHK offices as well,” he said. The statement of the police saying that they did not try to detain Postanjyan and her daughter is ‘sheer demagogy given the fact that they tried to do it in front of cameras.’ “We are dealing with legal nihilism when law enforcement agencies do not respond to serious revelation,” Mr Safaryan said.
