Police force HAK activists off Liberty Square
Young activists of the Armenian National Congress (HAK) were again taken to the Kentron district police department on Sunday evening.
At about 5:30, HAK proponents started gathering at Liberty Square that re-opened only a few days after the construction of a large underground car park. Plain-clothes policemen headed by the Armenian Police's Patrol Service Chief Valeri Osipian and Colonel Robert Melkonian (nicknamed Bazaz) elbowed HAK activists, trying to remove them from the square.
"I live in this city and I have a right to stroll around the Opera House," said a woman activist.
The scuffle started after the policemen affronted HAK activist Tigran Arakelyan and forced him off the square.
"You are a blind gut and you need a major operation," Robert Melkonian told HAK activists.
A bit later, plain-clothes policemen approached Tigran, seated him in a car and drove in an unknown direction.
Minutes later the policemen "removed" HAK activist Vardges Gaspari, Sargis Gevorgyan, Vahagn Gevorgyan, Sergey Karapetyan and Vladimir Karapetyan from the square as well.
At the police station HAK activists were ordered not to assemble at the square. They were released in three hours.
"Head of the Kentron district police department Ashot Karapetyan told me that he had come personally to persuade us against gathering at Liberty Square," said Tigran Arakelyan said after the release.
