Thousands Gather in Yerevan to Protest Against Hike in Electricity Rates for Third Consecutive Day

For the third consecutive day, thousands of people have gathered on Baghramyan Avenue in central Yerevan, not far from the RA Presidential Residence, protesting against the rise in electricity rates in Armenia. 

The hundreds of protesters who had spent the night on the central Yerevan Avenue were joined by citizens who rallied on Freedom Square on Wednesday evening before marching toward the demonstration site. 

In the early morning of June 23, Armenian riot police violently dispersed the peaceful sit-in outside the Armenian president’s office. Today, police officers in full riot gear have once again blocked the road; there is a water cannon behind them. A number of officers are deployed not far from the protest site, on Demirchyan Street. 

In parallel, demonstrations against the increase in electricity tariffs are being held in the towns of Gyumri, Vanadzor, Abovyan, and Charentsavan.

Late on Monday, after a three-day sit-in at Freedom Square in central Yerevan, protesters tried to march toward Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan’s office at 26 Baghramyan. However, hundreds of armed police officers, forming a barricade, closed the road, not allowing demonstrators to get any closer to the presidential palace. Protesters then sat in the middle of the road at the intersection of Baghramyan and Isahakyan streets, staging an impromptu sit-in outside the presidential office.