Sari Tagh residents hope their relatives will soon be at large (video)
Residents of Yerevan’s Sari Tagh district have been staging a sit-in outside the Office of Prosecutor General since March 28. “It is very difficult to come here every day at my age and at every age. We are deeply depressed to come here,” said Aghavni Jamkochyan, the grandmother of Hrachya Boyajyan, who was arrested with a group of citizens in the wake of last year’s clashes between demonstrators and riot police in Sari Tagh neighborhood following the seizure of a police station in Erebuni district. The protesting residents demand that the police set free their relatives detained in the unrest that erupted late on July 29 when demonstrators tried to approach the police station where gunmen from the Sasna Dzrer stayed barricaded for about two weeks after they seized it on July 17. The detainees were immediately charged with using violence against government representatives. They demand that the article be reviewed and charges be mitigated. “If the article is changed, we might see all the ten detainees at large again,” said Narine Ghazaryan. The relatives state that the clashes were provoked by the police. “My son is seen in the video. When the chaotic situation broke out, he took a stone and threw it. The stone fell onto the ground without hurting a car or a person,” said Nazik Torosyan, the mother of Harutyun Torosyan. The protesters say they will start a hunger strike if their relatives are not freed.
