Epress.am News from Armenia
Civic activists, members of the Armenian National Congress (HAK), Heritage Party, and Hayazn party, and HAK faction MP Nikol Pashinyan participated in a march dedicated to the 22th anniversary of the independence of the Republic of Armenia that began at 4 pm on Sept. 21 from Liberty Square in central Yerevan.
At the start of the march, one of the participants, Karen Tovmasyan, at the request of Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Valeriy Osipyan, outlined the route of the march so that police would ensure the safety and security of its participants. Marchers, chanting "Free, Independent Armenia!", "[Armenian President] Serzhik, resign!", and "We are Armenia!", walked down Northern Avenue to Republic Square, where they briefly stopped, chanting "Shame! Shame!" and then continued to the event planned to take place in the square.
The march continued down Amiryan Street, then Mashtots Avenue, where police officers, forming a barricade, did not permit marchers to walk in the middle of the road, as they had been doing previously. Osipyan said that demonstrators are not permitted to block traffic on Baghramyan Avenue and the march must continue on the sidewalk. Demonstrators, however, cut through the police wall and walked on the road toward Baghramyan 26 (the presidential palace). Police then formed a human chain at the intersection of Baghramyan and Demirchyan streets, not allowing demonstrators to get any closer to the presidential palace.
Tovmasyan declared that since the purpose of the demonstration was not to cause clashes, but to "remind the unelected that he is unelected," the march will continue on the sidewalk across the street from the presidential palace till the Marshal Baghramyan metro station. Later, the marchers returned to Liberty Square.