Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) continues to request permits from Yerevan City Hall to hold a rally at Freedom (Liberty) Square. The latest claim was submitted by HAK representative Tigran Arakelyan today, with a request to hold a rally at Freedom Square on Oct. 6.
Arakelyan told Epress.am that, in accordance with Article 13 of the RA Law on Conducting Meetings, Assemblies, Rallies and Demonstrations, the municipality’s refusal to grant a permit is unlawful.
“In that Article, there are 7 Sections, which are supposed to be reasons why an event is prohibited. However, none of those points are present in the City Hall’s refusal. Part 2 [of Section 1] of Article 13 assumes the following: ‘A mass public event is prohibited by a decision of the authorized body pursuant to consideration of notification provided some other mass event or other event that precludes convention of the event takes place on the mentioned date, time and location’,” quoted Arakelyan, adding that there’s something in writing at City Hall where every day for one month, practice sessions for the Erebuni-Yerevan celebration will be taking place in Yerevan’s Liberty Square.
“For that one month, there’s a request for only one event, which is contrary to RA law: according to law, a claim must be submitted to City Hall for each day, which also has to be included in the registry book. All that is absent,” explained Arakelyan, adding that for that reason they can’t prohibit HAK’s requests for a permit.
As an aside, Arakelyan told Epress.am that the HAK v. Yerevan City Hall court session took place today, during which time the municipality representative said that for this one month, the practice sessions are presented as a celebration.
“That is, every day for one month, Yerevan is in celebrations,” concluded Arakelyan.