During
the monitoring of yesterday's-June 17, 2021- rally of the acting Prime Minister
of Armenia, the Office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia recorded that
participants with a hammer in their hand were present at the campaign; they openly
demonstrated their hammer.
This
is a very dangerous, absolutely condemnable phenomenon. The presence of people
with hammers at the rally yesterday was broadcasted live. The rally was broadcasted
live on the official Facebook page of the acting Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol
Pashinyan and is still available on that page, where people with hammers can be
seen from 1 hour:16min:39 sec. Moreover, the photos of the participants with
hammers were widely disseminated on social networks yesterday and today. There
have even been calls to replace the hammers with sledgehammer.
It is
obvious that this is connected with the demonstration of a hammer and descriptive
comparisons made by the acting Prime Minister during the pre-election campaign
rallies, and the use of a rhetoric of hatred, insult, and threats.
Therefore,
the acting Prime Minister of Armenia must stop demonstrating the hammer at rallies,
and stop using insulting and threatening rhetoric, and must call on his
supporters and all the citizens in general to rule out such extremely dangerous
phenomena.
We
urge everyone not to use any tools or comparisons associated with physical
injury or violence. It is the duty of the politicians, especially for those who
are considered to be candidates for the Prime Minister, to prevent it and not
to justify that they did it to show their construction plans.
The Armenian
Police should be more vigilant, and instead of commenting on whether the hammer
is a cold weapon or not, should actually fulfill its function of preempting and
preventing the violations, thus contributing to the peaceful processes in the
country.
Հայերեն
