Robert Kocharyan about Sasna Tsrer group: "Public showed a yellow  card to the country`s political system" 

ArmInfo. In his exclusive interview to RFE/RL Armenian Service (Azatutyun.am), Armenia's second President Robert Kocharyan said the Armenian public's reaction and support to the actions by Sasna Tsrer group that seized a police compound in Yerevan in July demanding the president's resignation arouse concern. 

"This shows the general moods in public, people's attitudes towards  the authorities and pressure. It also speaks about political,  economic and social problems have become chronic in public  consciousness. A yellow card was shown to the country's political  system," Kocharyan said.

In his words, radical activities can be displayed in any country,  even in the most democratic ones. Everywhere there will be people who  will see the solution to political and social problems in extreme  methods. 

"The problem is how the society responds to the attempts to resolve  internal problems by force I'm more concerned about the people's  reaction to the recent events. Although there was a victim, a day  after the seizure of a police station by the Sasna Tsrer group people  perceived the armed group members as rebels who challenged the acting  regime," the second president said.

"I'd like to reiterate that I am not speaking about the seizure of  the police station, I am speaking about the public reaction to the  fact, public support for the group members in the streets and through  social media and glorification of the group. You cannot ignore such a  phenomenon and you need to do something about it otherwise you will  have a country "sitting on a powder keg." We need radical reforms;  people need to see political competition in the country and the  possibility of changes. They want to see legitimate electoral  processes," Kocharyan said.

The second president believes that the statistics no longer reflects  the real economic situation and the government stopped formulating  and forming the economic policy.  

"Social media are the most impartial example of the public sentiments  and the social and political situation in the county," Robert  Kocharyan said adding that the negative sentiments in public are  radicalizing gradually and this affects the investment activity,  consumers' mood, as well as sparks migration and other negative  phenomena.