If you can't protect an 18-year-old student in a church, then what are you protecting? Ashotyan to the EU

RPA Vice Chairman Armen Ashotyan held a rally in front of the EU representation in defense of 18-year-old Davit Minasyan and sent a message.

“Representatives of the European Union, if you have the courage to listen.

My fellow citizens.

Defenders of freedom.

European citizens, who pay taxes to maintain this embassy,

I stand here today not with diplomatic courtesy, but with a boiling heart.

I stand in front of this building, this supposed symbol of Europe, justice, human dignity, and I am ashamed. Not of my country, but of those who claim to be its moral “trainers” but in reality bow their heads.

Behind me is a building whose windows remain closed, whose diplomats are silent, while a student sits in a prison cell for the “crime” of expressing his opinion in church.

David Minasyan is 18 years old. He is a student. His only “crime” was being in St. Anne’s Church on Palm Sunday, surrounded by security forces. He was hit in the face. He was thrown to the ground. And who is behind bars? Not the men who hit him. David. For a gesture. For a word.

Today he is in pretrial detention like a common criminal. Two months. For a frustrated emotion in the presence of a “prime minister” who apparently considers himself above the law and God.

And where is Europe?

Where are you?

You, who give endless lectures on democracy. You, who demand transparency, preach the rule of law, who make solemn declarations about human rights in all corners of the world.

You stand here in Yerevan, preparing for the big summit with this government in May. You will smile. You will shake hands. You will sign papers on “partnership.” Drink Armenian brandy.

But I ask you: what kind of partnership is built on the bones of a child’s freedom?

Your silence is not neutrality. Your silence is complicity.

You will not say a word about David Minasyan because you do not want to embarrass the man who smiles in front of your cameras.

You will not remember democratic standards because you need a “stable partner” for your geopolitics.

You will not criticize the persecution of the Armenian Apostolic Church because you do not want to “interfere in internal affairs.”

But let me tell you what is happening inside those internal affairs: the rule of law is dying. The courts are rubber stamps. The Prime Minister’s security forces are beating teenagers in churches, and teenagers are going to prison. Meanwhile, regime loyalists can spit on citizens with impunity.

This is not democracy. This is dictatorship with a European facade.

And you, you, the European Union, are helping to paint that facade.

You sit in your embassies. You write your reports. You use the words “concern,” “reforms,” “encouraging steps,” “hybrid warfare.” But where is your outrage? Where is your moral clarity?

If you cannot defend an 18-year-old student in church, then what are you defending?

If you remain silent when the Armenian people are deprived of their fundamental freedoms, what do your treaties mean?

If you accept a government that imprisons its critics while pretending to build a “European future,” then you are not building Europe, you are burying its values ​​on Armenian soil.

Let me be clear. I am a patriot. I want a European modus vivendi and modus operandi for Armenia.I want our people to enjoy the freedoms that Europeans take for granted. But I am here and I will not allow you to use the European dream as a shield for tyranny.

You cannot lecture us about democracy while you shake hands with a regime that imprisons children.

You cannot demand judicial reform while you ignore the judge who signed the arrest warrant for Davit Minasyan without evidence.

You cannot call yourselves human rights defenders while you remain silent as the Armenian Apostolic Church, the soul of our nation, is persecuted.

Shame on you.

Shame on your silence. Shame on your hypocrisy. Shame on the diplomats who look out their windows, who see me here, who know the truth and do nothing.

Davit Minasyan must be released. Today. Not tomorrow. Not after the summit. Now.

And until you find your voice, until you stop being the promoters of authoritarianism, you do not deserve to call this place the “European Union Delegation.” You do not deserve the trust of the Armenian people and the citizens of Europe.

We will not be silent. We will not bow down. We will continue to fight for our freedoms, with or without you.

But history will remember who stood with the oppressed and who looked away.

Release Davit Minasyan.

Release all political prisoners.

And European Union officials: either live by your values, or stop pretending to have them.

I leave here the school bag that could have belonged to Davit Minasyan as a blatant reminder of your hypocrisy.”