Epress.am News from Armenia
At the Jan. 28, 2014 rally of the civil initiative Army in Reality, the RA Police once again brutally dispersed a peaceful gathering organized at Liberty Square and once again violated Armenian citizens' freedom of expression and fundamental rights, reads a statement issued by the initiative.
"First, they used violence to prevent mothers of soldiers who died during times of peace to approach the square. The mothers in black had come to remind the officials participating in the festive celebration at the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre named after Alexander Spendiaryan of the unsolved cases of their sons' murders. Then, Army in Reality civil initiative members Vardges Gaspari, Ara Nedolyan, and Artashes Sergoyan, who were supporting them [the mothers], were unlawfully detained.
"The detained citizens were not given an explanation as to why they were taken to the police station by force, and when citizen Vardges Gaspari asked for copies of the documents related to his case, central police division staff with the use of force and displaying inhumane treatment put him in a van, taking him far from the building and leaving him there in the mud and rain. The use of force against mothers who've lost their sons and are searching for justice and citizens voicing problems in the army once again proves that the topic of the army is an undesirable and closed space for our country's leadership and issues related to it cannot be raised.
"We consider the use of force against mothers of killed soldiers and citizens raising problems in the army along with the ceremony to celebrate Army Day to be another expression of the criminal policies of state officials, aimed at promoting a culture of impunity and arbitrariness," reads the statement.