Protesting Parents Not Allowed Near Presidential Residence Due to Czech President’s Visit

“They take our sons to Karabakh without asking us and [National Assembly deputy speaker Eduard] Sharmazanov says that 'Nagorno-Karabakh is a separate state and we have no right to intervene in their affairs.' Then why do they overlook this when it comes to our sons?” Hovsep Muradyan, whose son, Arman Muradyan, died in 2013 in a NKR military unit in a non-combat related incident, said Thursday morning during a protest action nearby the Armenian presidential residence. 

Muradyan, along with the mothers of military conscripts Artur Ghazaryan and Valery Muradyan who died in 2010 also in non-combat conditions, were not allowed by law enforcement officers to approach the gates of the residence since Czech President Milos Zeman was visiting Serzh Sargsyan as part of his official visit to Armenia. 

The parents, after protesting the officers' actions to no avail, moved across the street from the presidential residence and stood there for nearly an hour, holding the portraits of their dead sons.