Epress.am News from Armenia
According to a new audio recording that has appeared on YouTube, what sounds to be Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Robert Melkonyan and Kentron (“Center”) Police Chief Sargis Martirosyan are heard threatening detained Armenian National Congress (HAK) activists. In the clip (available only in Armenian), the senior police officials are heard issuing a warning to the young opposition activists regarding their activities ahead of Thursday’s rally.
Recall, at about 8:45 pm on Jun. 25, four youth HAK activists — Sargis Gevorgyan, Vahagn Gevorgyan, Sargis Khachatryan and David Kiramijyan — were picked up by police from the Pushkin–Mashtots intersection while they were distributing flyers announced the Jun. 30 rally and taken to central police division. They were subsequently released at around 9:25 pm.
Later, Sargis Gevorgyan informed Epress.am that police officials told him if they’re going to distribute leaflets, that’s fine, but “don’t allow yourselves to make insults to the president.”
“We were chanting, ‘Serzhik, go away!’ [a common chant addressed to Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, asking him to resign]. We tried to find out what part of this expression was insulting,” said Gevorgyan.
Another activist, Vahagn Gevorgyan, according to the youth’s retelling of the story, tried to talk with Deputy Police Chief Robert Melkonyan, who apparently ordered both boys to be taken to division.
According to Sargis Gevorgyan, initially police demanded that he and Vahagn Gevorgyan only go to the police station, but later, Sargis Khachatryan and David Kiramijyan were also picked up and all four boys were temporarily detained.
Sargis Gevorgyan then describes how police spoke harshly to them, after which the parties argued. Afterwards, Gevorgyan continued, the activists were told they were free to go, but not after they were asked not to chant “Serzhik, go away!”
Vahagn Gevorgyan told Epress.am that police tried to show as if they were simply inviting the activists to police division “for a chat,” but, according to him, they were in fact detained.