{"id":266113,"date":"2015-06-22T21:25:33","date_gmt":"2015-06-22T17:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=266113"},"modified":"2015-06-22T21:29:12","modified_gmt":"2015-06-22T17:29:12","slug":"armenian-police-block-march-towards-presidential-palace-as-citizens-march-against-hike-in-electricity-tariff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/22\/armenian-police-block-march-towards-presidential-palace-as-citizens-march-against-hike-in-electricity-tariff.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Police Block Road Toward Presidential Palace as Citizens March Against Hike in Electricity Tariff"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\tOn Monday, June 22, thousands of Armenian citizens took to the streets of Yerevan in a march against the latest <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/2015\/06\/17\/armenian-protesters-throw-eggs-at-psrc-office-after-commission-decides-to-increase-electricity-tariff-by-nealy-7-drams.html\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">hike in electricity prices<\/span><\/a> in Armenia. Note, hundreds of protesters <a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/en\/?p=266054\"><span style=\"color:#0000FF;\">have been staging a protest sit-in<\/span><\/a> at the Freedom Square in central Yerevan for the last 3 days, warning they would march towards the RA Presidential Residence on Baghramyan 26 if the decision of the RA Public Services Regulatory Commission to increase electricity tariff in Armenia by nearly 7 drams was not reversed by 7 PM, June 22.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAt the start of the march, Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Valeriy Osipyan urged the marchers not to move towards the president&#39;s office, stating the police would do their best to maintain public order within &ldquo;permitted limits.&rdquo;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tHowever, the protesters, chanting &quot;Free, Independent Armenia!&quot;, &ldquo;Police, join us!&rdquo; continued the march up Baghramyan Avenue, where hundreds of armed police officers, forming a barricade, closed the road toward Baghramyan 26, not allowing demonstrators to get 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.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tShortly after, Yerevan Police Chief Ashot Karapetyan came out to the protesters, stating&nbsp;president Serzh Sargsyan was willing to receive a delegation of 3-5 people and hear their demands. The protesters, however, declared they had no need to meet the president, nor did they want to negotiate or discuss anything: they would leave and call off the protest action only if the decision to increase electricity tariff was reversed.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tAs of 9 PM, traffic on Baghramyan Avenue is blocked, and thousands of protesters are staging a sit-in along the entire length of the road.\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\tNote, police have several water cannons and armored fighting vehicles at their disposal; Deputy Yerevan Police Chief Osipyan has declared the protest action was illegal and unsanctioned, and warned&nbsp;law enforcement would&nbsp;carry out special operations and use force to disperse the crowd,&nbsp;if need be.&nbsp;\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/3police.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"3police\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-266110\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/3police.jpg\" width=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/3police.jpg 450w, https:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/3police-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/2police.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"2police\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-266109\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/2police.jpg\" width=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/2police.jpg 450w, https:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/2police-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a>\n<\/p>\n<p>\n\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/1police1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"1police\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-266108\" height=\"300\" src=\"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/1police1.jpg\" width=\"450\" srcset=\"https:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/1police1.jpg 450w, https:\/\/epress.am\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/1police1-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shortly after, Yerevan Police Chief Ashot Karapetyan came out to the protesters, stating the president Serzh Sargsyan was willing to receive a delegation of 3-5 people and hear their demands. The protesters, however&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":266111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266113"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}