It was a mistake, PM on how law enforcement handled YSU student council head’s detention

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at the Cabinet meeting today that in many cases the government must admit that law enforcement agencies are carrying out unjustified aggressiveness towards people. He mentioned the recent detention of YSU Student Council President, noting that the way officers handled the situation was a mistake.

“This has a concrete reason, it is the lack of sufficient education, awareness and literacy, but in order for us to solve this problem, we must first of all admit it. Recently the YSU incident is being discussed a lot, we must admit that a mistake has taken place, which must bring consequences. Today we have two situations: on one hand there is a problem of excessive aggressiveness and when you combat it very coherently a problem of excessive passiveness begins in the system,” he said.

Pashinyan emphasized that the government will not avoid problems, but will rather face them. “We will not escape from any problem, there isn’t going to be a more interested body than the government in the fight against these occurrences and for human rights”.

On December 24, the President of the Student Council of the Yerevan State University Davit Apoyan was detained by police officers. He was handcuffed and escorted by officers from his office at the YSU. Many criticized the way officers handled the situation due to the fact that Apoyan was simply being questioned as a witness in connection to an incident.