"The Motherland is not for sale":  ARF youth confronting Government

ArmInfo. Representatives of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun (ARF) youth movement held a protest outside  the Armenian government building, where they arrived with photographs of  officials from the  ruling Civil Contract party in Artsakh.

The protest took place while Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan  was addressing the media inside.  At a briefing, when asked whether  he believed ethnic cleansing had occurred in Artsakh, the Armenian  prime minister stated that "you can say 'ethnic cleansing' and get  the opposite; you can say 'genocide' and get the opposite-that is,  you embark on a path of conflict." 

It should be noted that the protesters from the ARF youth wing lined  the building with photos of current leaders-including Foreign  Minister Ararat Mirzoyan, Parliament Speaker Alen Simonyan Defense  Minister Suren Papikyan,  the PM posing with his family in front of  the "We Are Our Mountains" monument and ruling party members in front  of the Ghazanchetsots Church of the Holy Savior in Shushi.  The  protesters thus wanted to demonstrate that the homeland is not a  subject for negotiation, and that they still remember and will  continue to remember the statements made by the Armenian authorities.

Notably, state security officers did not allow the protesters to use  loudspeakers due to the ongoing briefing inside.

A representative of the ARF youth movement noted that the Armenian  authorities, in their attemps to rewrite or erase the memory of the  Armenian people, are only demonstrating their ignorant and short-  sighted approach. "This political force, like their leader, shouted  from every platform that Artsakh is Armenia and that's it, and that  it is their homeland. These statements are not a diplomatic error.  And their claims that they have changed their position after  self-reflection are, in reality, nothing but  a political calculation  aimed at seizing power. Tactics and situations may change, but the  homeland and national values are not bargaining chips. These  photographs are a proof of your duplicity." 

The protest ended with the photos being left on the ground.  Remarkably, people passing by stopped and even picked them up to  examine them closely.