Armenian Police Detained, then Released Young Women Believed to be ‘Emo’

Around 4:30 pm yesterday, six young women were taken by police from the area in central Yerevan where the children’s railway runs to the central police division for questioning. Today, 3 of the 6 women gave a press conference (which was not very widely publicized). It turns out that one of the women had a small souvenir knife in her hand, which area supervisors noticed and urged the girls to leave the area since they have a gun, called the girls “emos,” Satanists and those “not having a formal appearance.” Before the girls could leave the area, police officers, only one of which was in uniform with two being plainclothes officers, came and pulling the girls by their hairs, forced them into a police vehicle and took them to the station, reports Lragir.am.

One of the girls, Tsomak, said they were put under pressure at the station.

“You go into their room, broken chairs, terrible conditions, and you don’t know what they can do to you,” she said, adding that officers addressed them not in the way that you would talk to a fellow human being. “Probably we weren’t even a cockroach for them, such a level that I said, can you be this severe at this level, they told me, ‘yes,’ not only are we severe, but also we don’t have a heart.”

Asked by journalists whether police officers asked them whether they were part of an emo movement or not, the girls said they were asked a couple of questions, not even knowing themselves what it is to be emo. According to Lragir.am, none of the girls detained yesterday identified as emo.

Helsinki Association President Mikael Danielyan, who was at the police station during the entire time, said this is  way of oppressing youth, since youth always present a strength that they can create a movement.

“In the past there were hippies, punks, then the Soviet Union collapsed, however, it turned out that it didn’t collapse. The same is beginning against the emos, tomorrow they might catch girls with short skirts because it might turn out that they too are a disturbance,” he said. According to the human rights defender, all this resembles fascism. 

According to Danielyan, when someone in Armenia dies, lately they’ve been saying that either they were Jehovah’s Witnesses or emo. But what’s most interesting is that youth killed in the army or in custody of the police are killed by neither Jehovah’s Witnesses nor emos, but by Christian Armenian officers.

According to information received by Lragir.am, recently police officers have been going to schools, meeting with teachers and parents, apparently in a move to stop a possible emo movement in Armenia. 

Note that emo is a style of music, fashion and culture. Emo teens are often identified by their unique hair styles, black eye make-up, and black and pink clothing.