Epress.am News from Armenia
The Armenian police has called a roundtable meeting on Mar. 17 at 4:30 pm to explain its position on the events of Mar. 14 at Mashtots Park in central Yerevan. Recall, after 9 pm that day, police raided the park which environmental and civic activists have been occupying in protest of shop construction in the park and seized the activists’ tent.
The RA Police is inviting the RA Human Rights Defender’s Office, the Institute for Human Rights and Democracy, local civic movements “We are the owners of this city,” Trchkan, and Our City, as well as parliamentary opposition parties the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) and Heritage Party to the roundtable, which is set to take place in the RA Police building (Nalbandyan 130).
Police are prepared to discuss the following issues:
– General freedom (“all that which is not prohibited by law is permissible”) as a principle and right
– The understanding and meaning of the terms “public order” and “public safety”
– The legality of placing tent(s) in public spaces
– The limits of police discretion, precondition for applying coercion
– The principle of reducing tension in police tactics
– The European Court of Human Rights’ right of precedence and OSCE standards in the context of the above-mentioned issues