Epress.am News from Armenia
According to activist Vahagn Minasyan, who's been staging a sit-in outside Yerevan City Hall for over two months, the police statement about his behavior outside the municipality building is completely untrue.
According to police, at around 2:20 am on Monday, approaching the steps outside Yerevan City Hall, Minasyan shouted, "Where is the police officer?"
"Patrol officers approached Vahagn, attempting to find out what is happening, why he is shouting and making noise. Seeing that the citizen was under the influence of alcohol, police officers first tried to calm him down, call him to order, and then offered their assistance, but Vahagn kept shouting, bitterly reacted to police officers' observations, and showed a disrespectful attitude," read the police statement.
Speaking to Epress.am, Vahagn Minasyan said he was not "under the influence of alcohol" and he wasn't shouting; he just approached the steps of the municipality building and hearing the question of a police officer getting out of a car if there's a problem, he said that he wanted to see if there's a police officer outside or not.
When the officer said he is the guard on duty, Minasyan pointed out that he had just got out of his car.
At that point, the car window was rolled down and the high-ranking officer inside in a rude manner called the activist to order. The exchange ended with Minasyan being taken to the police station. He provided a written explanation and left.
According to Minasyan, "the false statement by the police is [just] another attempt to discredit participants of the sit-in outside city hall."
Recall, since July, Gor Arakelyan, Suren Sahakyan, and Vahagn Minasyan have been staging a sit-in to demand the resignation of head of Yerevan City Hall's Transportation Department Henrik Navasardyan and Yerevantrans CJSC Director Misak Hambardzumyan. A group of activists are supporting the three youth.
Photo from Vahe Gevorgyan's Facebook page.