YEREVAN, June 23. / ARKA /. Foreign media reports are trying to politicize the protests in Yerevan against the electricity price hike, a political scientist Hrant Melik-Shahnazaryan said in an interview with Sputnik Armenia radio station in comments on Tuesday's protest and its tough dispersal by the riot police in the early hours of June 23.



"This is clearly a social protest without political overtones. Although it sounds strange but the attempts to politicize it are being made by largely foreign media, especially, from Ukraine and Russia. The impression is that Armenia’s information field, especially today, in a sense, has become a platform of Russian-Ukrainian confrontation,’ said Melik-Shahnazaryan.



According to him, this tendency should be prevented as quickly as possible, because it can distract both demonstrators and government representatives from the developments that are unique to Armenia only.

In comments on the fact that some foreign media describe what happened in Yerevan as "Maidan” he said they, in fact, are not particularly interested in what is really going on in Armenia, and what is the real reason behind the protest.



"This is a social unrest, social rebellion, and they (foreign media) will try to use this opportunity to solve their own problems,' he added.



Another political analyst Movses Demirchyan said there is no word about the choice of the country’s development vector or the choice of a party ideology and in this sense, foreign media reports do not reflect the situation that was created in Armenia.



Demirchyan found it difficult to predict how the situation will develop in the future saying that will depend on what kind of demands the activists of the protest may put forward today, and how realistic they are.



The office of the prosecutor general said today it has opened a probe into "hooliganism and disturbing public order" after today morning’s dispersal of the sit-in. If found guilty, the protesters could face a fine of a jail term.



Armenia's health ministry said 25 people, including 11 police, were treated for injuries including fractures. The overnight rally was the culmination of several days of protests aimed at forcing president Serzh Sargsyan to cancel the tariff hikes, with protests also taking place on Monday in several other cities. -0-





20:17 23.06.2015