In the evening of May 9 in Yerevan, journalists suffered during the attempt
of the law and order bodies to disperse the people near RA National Security
Service premises.
According to the eyewitnesses, after the election rally of the “Republic”,
“New Times” parties and “Impeachment” bloc, its organizers called on their followers
to start a procession towards the building of NSS, which has a pre-trial detention
center on its territory. The procession was to support the detainees, particularly,
the former RA Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanian, detained recently on the
suspicion of legalizing the sums received in circumvention of the law. The rally
participants, that approached the NSS premises, were met by the police and special
forces. The latter started to push the protestors back, using bludgeons and
tear-gas. As told to YPC by freelance journalist Garik Shamshian, the law and
order bodies tried to seize his photo camera, they tore his jacket, and it is
only due to the intervention of the rally participants that he managed to preserve
the camera. According to the correspondent of “Hayastani Hanrapetutiun” daily
Tsovinar Nazarian, when the law and order bodies used tear-gas, a gas flow hit
her eyes, causing her to lose vision for ten minutes.
The incident at NSS is now in the competence of the Prosecutor’s Office of
the Center and Nork Marash communities of Yerevan.
