Epress.am News from Armenia
Yesterday, around 70 citizens gathered for artist Ara Petrosyan’s organized rally “Against State Terrorism,” which condemned the attacks on HAK faction secretary Aram Manukyan and 3 veterans.
According to rally’s planned route, protesters were supposed to hold a protest in front of the police building first, and then walk toward the Presidential Palace. However, the rally’s plan changed; around 50 police officers stood on the sidewalk of Nalbandyan St. near the police building keeping protesters away from the building for around 2 hours. The protesters on the sidewalk were chanting “Shame, shame,” “Yeranosyan, Scarecrow.” Recall, that the RA deputy-police chief Levon Yeranosyan stated that “I have nothing to hold back; while I’m on the job, if anyone in this country tries to say anything against the Republic’s President I’ll cut their dog ears off,”
During the entire rally police did not answer the questions of either protesters or journalists. They also did not explain the reasons behind their actions. One of the journalists covering the rally called the Police’s media service, where public relations department staffer Armen Malkhasyan initially asked to “call back in 15 minutes,” however, he did not respond to any calls afterward.
The activists called the Human Rights Defender’s office. The office sent a few experts, to which an officer named Sargsyan explained to them that they were not letting the protesters near the building because they feel they have an “aggressive attitude.” When asked if they saw aggressive behavior among all the protesters, Sargsyan answered negatively saying that they predicted that the protesters would not behave properly near the police building.
Police representatives also said that the organizer did not inform them earlier about the rally. Note, that according to article 9 part 1 of the Law on the Freedom of Assembly “in order to conduct a public protest the organizer must in written form inform an authorized body, except for those with less than a 100 participants and those urgent and spontaneous protests.”
The Ombudsman’s office staff said there was a contradiction to the police’s responses, if the police are not allowing the protesters near the police building, then how are the police securing their freedom of assembly?
Video in Armenian only.
After waiting for two hours, the protesters decided to take the rally to the Presidential Palace and to conduct a citizens' meeting about the protest and their future plans. The rally’s organizer Ara Petrosyan stressed that this protest was the first step, “let them know that we aren’t going to keep quiet.”