In the conditions of the war unleashed on 27 September 2020 by the Republic of Azerbaijan against the Republic of Artsakh and in accordance with this, the declared martial law in the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh on the same day, on 10 November 2020 after the publication in the media of a statement on the Agreement on the cessation of hostilities reached between the Republic of Armenia, the Russian Federation and the Republic of Azerbaijan, in different districts of the Republic of Armenia , especially in the buildings of the RA Government, the RA National Assembly and other objects of state importance and public places in capital Yerevan , civil disorders were organized and carried out with the use of violence, pogroms, destruction, damage to property or armed resistance to a government representative. At this time, on the part of participants there were both calls for active disobedience to the legal demands of the government officials or the use of violence against individuals, as well as public calls aimed at seizing power, violent overthrow of the constitutional order, as a result of which public safety, the normal activities of state and local self-government bodies were under threat.

In addition, on the same day, the participants of the civil disorders used violence against the Chairman of the RA National Assembly Ararat Mirzoyan in Yerevan in order to force him not to comply with the points of the above-mentioned Agreement, and also voiced threats to use violence against members of the RA government and the Prime Minister for the same purpose.

In connection with this incident, on 10 November, 2020 a criminal case was initiated in the Investigation Department of the RA National Security Service on the grounds of the elements of crime envisaged by Article 225, Parts 1, 2 and 4 of the RA Criminal Code, Article 301 of the RA Criminal Code and Article 301.1, Part 1.

As a result of numerous and effective investigative and other procedural actions and operative-search measures taken during the preliminary investigation of the criminal case, based on direct suspicion of committing a crime, about 20 persons were found and arrested. Moreover, most of the above-mentioned persons, already known to the public for their civil disorders, repented of their deeds, diametrically changed their behavior immediately after the application of judicial coercion against them and showed behavior characteristic of a law-abiding citizen.

We should add that operative-search measures are being taken, inspections of the places of occurrence, urgent investigative and procedural actions have been carried out, complex forensic-medical, forensic-commodity and forensic-trasological examinations have been appointed, numerous witnesses have been interrogated, items stolen from the government residence have been found out and seized, video recordings from the video cameras from the territories that were the scene of the incident have been seized, persons present in them have been identified, investigative and procedural actions of other types have been carried out in the direction of establishing the identities of all the participants in civil disorders, including the organizers, as well as bringing them to justice before the law.

The National Security Service of the Republic of Armenia conducts a consistent fight in the direction of preventing, disrupting and disclosing crimes against public security, the foundations of the constitutional order and state security.

At the same time, it is also expected that wide sections of society will be involved in this process, in order to inform the authorities of the information that has become known to them about the abovementioned cases, about the personalities of the persons captured on the videos published on social networks.

The RA National Security Service calls for observing the requirements of the legal regime of martial law, showing high civic responsibility, not giving in to provocations, refraining from an inadmissible modus operandi in which narrow personal or party interests prevail over public interests, the public is misled under the guise of patriotism, the life and health of soldiers still in combat positions are endangered, and warns that the state, using all its tools will take appropriate actions arising from the situation.

Note: The suspect or accused of an alleged crime is considered innocent as long as his guilt is not proven in a manner prescribed by the Code of Criminal Procedure of RA - by the court decision entered into legal force.