Is lighting candles a crime?
Police officers finally decided to interrupt the protest of the "Miatsum" national initiative in the second half of the day. The protest had started in the morning near the Isahakyan statue.
Much later it became clear that the police didn't know that the protest was held by "Miatsum" and not the ARF. It was then that the police started giving instructions to take out the signs on the sidewalks for pedestrians to pass and demanded that the candles be put out. The police then burned the papers handed to passer-bys with the words "I am against the Turkish-Armenian protocols, the Madrid Principles under which I sign". The police officers took the candles and told the protesters to hold their protest without them. "The police told us that burning the protocols is a sign of disrespect toward the country. I told them to read what is written on the papers. We are not committing any crime. This is our way of protesting," member of the Armenian National Congress Ashot Miaskyan told "A1+", adding that most of the policemen left after finding out that presses and Zaruhi Postanjyan from the "Heritage" party were on their way to the scene.
The protesters purchased new candles after this incident. When Zaruhi Postanjyan sat next to the protesters and started following the petition, two police officers approached her and tried to take the lighted candle. The police were rather callous and did everything they could to take the candle from her. Postanjyan demanded a written statement from the police and to show the law that prohibits her from lighting candles. After a while, the policeman went away and looked at the protest from a distance.
