In the morning of September 21 in the center of Yerevan Levon Barseghian, Board Chairman of “Asparez” Journalists Club of Gyumri, and sculptor Arno Kur (Sasha Galechian) were detained by the police. The twelve citizens, who had gathered at the statue of Martiros Sarian, were preparing for the protest action against the participation of foreign units in the military parade on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of Armenia’s Independence. The lieutenant colonel of police who introduced himself as one of the heads of the Kentron Police Department, questioned the activists about their intentions, then went away, and after a while ordered the representatives of law enforcement bodies to arrest the action organizers – Levon Barseghian and Arno Kur. The latter ones were conveyed to the Kentron Police Department, where they stayed more than 3 hours and were released when the parade was over. In the evening of the same day Levon Barseghian and Arno Kur delivered a statement, which particularly noted that their detention was illegitimate: there was a use of force, an attorney was not allowed to visit them, and they were not presented the protocol of reconduction. The statement authors emphasized that the police violated their constitutional rights to freedom of movement, assembly and expression; thereby they are intended to address the court.
