The reaction of "Civil Society Institute" on the incidents on January 15 in Yerevan and Gyumri:

"Following the cruel murder of the six members of the Avetisyans family and stab wounding a 6-month old child on 12 January 2015, spontaneous assemblies continue to take place in Yerevan and Gyumri. The protesters have one demand: to handover Valeri Permyakov for prosecution to the Armenian authorities. Permyakov, a Russian national, was doing his military service in the Russian 102nd military base which is based in Gyumri.

In the evening of 15 January 38 protesters participating in a peaceful assembly at the Freedom Square were summoned to police. The situation escalated when persons in plain clothes, resorting to violence, tried to drag one of the protesters in a regular car without any distinctive signs. Later on it was told that the persons in question were police officers. However, at that moment none of them introduced himself as a police officer, failed to show any ID and did not informed about the grounds to summon a person to police, as required by law.

We call upon the Police of Armenia to stop such unlawful practice which impedes the enjoyment of the right of persons to freedom of assembly. Moreover, being provocative in its nature it escalates the situation even more.

On the same day clashes between demonstrators and police officers took place. As a result, 26 persons, including police officers sustained injuries. We believe that the escalation is a result of the hesitance and unclear position of the Armenian authorities following the arrest of Permyakov by the Russian law enforcement agents on the issue of jurisdiction over the case as well as neglecting the demand of the public to handover the accused to the Armenian law-enforcement bodies".