Karabakh War Veteran Prohibited from Honoring Serzh Sargsyan’s ‘Dead Soul’ Outside His Residence

Several dozen police officers on Thursday didn't permit Karabakh War veteran and organizer of a candlelight vigil "for the dead souls of [Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan and the ruling authorities" Susanna Margaryan to leave Liberty Square and go to the presidential palace at Baghramyan 26. 

Margaryan earlier had informed Epress.am that she is planning to march to the presidential palace and hold a candlelight vigil.

Before the start of the procession, Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Valeriy Osipyan approached Margaryan and demanded she abandon the idea of a candlelight vigil, but Margaryan countered, saying she will get to Baghramyan 26 at any cost.

For an hour and a half, around 50 police officers surrounded the war veteran and prohibited her from leaving the square. "They're not letting me go. They're afraid that the president might suddenly regain consciousness. They're afraid that if I light the candle, the devil from inside [him] will come out," she told reporters with a smile. 

The war veteran asked officers not to interfere with her free movement and to explain why they form a human chain when she begins to move toward Mashtots Blvd. 

"Tell me so that I'll understand: perhaps I'm a criminal? I don't know why you're blocking the road. I am specifically say where I'm going and for what purpose. Tell me: why don't I have the right to walk down the streets of Yerevan?" she asked the police officers, to which they simply repeated, "All the same, you can't go through."

Later, Margaryan lit one of the candles at Liberty Square and stressed it makes no difference to her where she lights the candle: "It doesn't matter, here or at the presidential palace, their dead souls are everywhere."

Recall, on Dec. 12, Margaryan had organized "Serzh Sargsyan's burial." When she threw a photo of Serzh Sargsyan on the ground and trampled it with her feet, police officers attempted to detain her. Speaking to Epress.am, Margaryan had said that for female war veterans and Armenian mothers, Serzh Sargsyan is dead, and so they organized a funeral procession, during which they urged passers-by to join in and take a wreath to Baghramyan 26.