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The legal team of Armenian public figure and opposition politician Avetik Chalabyan arrested last week visited him at the Armavir penitentiary on Saturday.

Chalabyan was arrested on 12 May for allegedly trying to pay students of the Armenian National Agrarian University to participate in ongoing anti-government protests in Yerevan. He denies the charges as politically motivated.

“This is a struggle for remaining Armenian. It’s a righteous struggle,” Chalabyan said in a message from prison.

“No hardship can break our spirit or deter us from preserving our statehood and making our nation stronger despite the consistent policies of the incumbent authorities leading to the loss of the Armenian statehood,” the political figure said, calling for unity.

He denounced the decision to arrest him as a “political order”.

“The persecution by the current authorities against me and numerous other supporters of the protest campaign goes to prove that the authorities are in agony.

“The six principles outlined by [Ambassador-at-Large] Edmon Marukyan reaffirm that the authorities are proceeding along the path of betraying the national interests for their own material gains.

“Our society is repeatedly deceived into believing that we are weak, helpless and unable to meet the security challenges we are facing, thus we must make concessions. We categorically reject this policy line: the Armenian people have repeatedly proved that even the most difficult situations can be overcome through unity.

“Dear friends, we should not be afraid of hardships for a decent future for us and our generations. This is not a struggle for power, this is a struggle to remain Armenian. Thus, I urge you to take to the streets to express your will and raise your voice,” reads the message.