Activists Detained Prior to Sargsyan’s and Hollande’s Arrival at Mashtots Park

Since 10 am today, civil society activists fighting to protect Mashtots Park were gathered at the central Yerevan park to disrupt a ceremony to rename the park, to be attended by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and his French counterpart, François Hollande. 

Activists held signs with excerpts from the open letter issued earlier to the French president, urging him not to participate in the ceremony. 

Activist Vahe Grigoryan told Epress.am that prior to the arrival of the heads of state, seven activists were detained, among them Ani Khachatryan, Gevorg Safaryan, Mika Elizbaryan, Anna Shahnazaryan, Arsen Ohanyan, and Dvin Isanyants. No other information is available at this time. 

Updated 2:13 pm local time: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Dvin Isanyants as Dvin Israelyan.