Expert: Rebels’ calculations were wrong – armed revolution and forced power shift methods are not typical to Armenian mentality

It is wrong to look for any links between the latest developments in Turkey and in Armenia or to try to see a foreign trace in the actions of the Artsakh war veterans, members of the New Armenia movement, who have seized the building of the Patrol-Guard Service Regiment in Erebuni district of Yerevan, Director of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs, has told ArmInfo.    

“The events in Turkey might have influenced the rebels’ actions in Armenia, but they are not interconnected,” he says. He thinks the driving force of the rebels’ actions was the despair and the intention to draw the public attention to the arrest of their leader Zhirayr Sefilyan. The expert thinks that the rebels made wrong political calculations.

“Practice shows that armed revolutions are not typical to the Armenian mentality. Our people do not like extremist and radical methods. So, the rebels cannot hope for public consolidation around them. In this light, their political calculations were wrong,” he says, noting that the miscalculations of the rebels will not only diminish their weight in the society, but will also strengthen the authorities’ positions, because their unlawful actions have given the authorities quite legal grounds to fight against them by taking quite constitutional measures.