Locksmith Fighting to Get His Job Back Again Stages Protest Outside Government Office

Just two days after being released from a Yerevan psychiatric hospital, Vardenis resident and a former locksmith at the Sotk gold mine Armen Yeranosyan again staged a protest outside the Government building today to demand that he be reinstated in his job. 

Earlier this week, Yeranosyan was forcibly taken to the Nubarashen psychiatric hospital where he spent 3 days after staging a 5-day hunger strike and stitching up his lips outside the Government building in protest of being unfairly fired from the gold mine. The Vardenis resident was allowed to leave the mental hospital only after the intervention of the human rights activists from the Armenian Helsinki Association,

The protester, accompanied by Helsinki Association members and reporters, went to the government reception office today to hand in a letter addressed to prime minister Karen Karapetyan. Speaking to an Epress.am reporter, Helsinki Association head Nina Karapetyants said they hoped the PM would respond positively to Yeranosyan's appeal and ensure the locksmith's reinstatement.

“We've done everything we can and will do so in the future to make sure that Yeranosyan's rights are not violated because we are convinced police will try again to create problems for him,” Karapetyants said, adding that after being released from the mental institution, the man has already received multiple calls from law-enforcement authorities in Vardenis. “Police, along with other officials, have even visited Yeranosyan's 80-year-old mother to urge her to call her son back to Vardenis.”