Tert.am
Around fifty environmental activists attempting to dismantle the kiosks in Yerevan’s Mashtots Park have met the police resistance.
After the first clash, the team to broke into the park, but the police managed to push them aside.
A group of young protesters is expressing solidarity with the team, by chanting slogans from distance.
Deputy Chief of Yerevan Police Ruben Melkonyan has asked the ‘dismantlers’ to refrain from violence.
One of the activists was injured in the hand while attempting to pull the iron bars.
Several public and political figures, including Zhirayr Sefilyan (Sardarapat Movement), ethnographer Hranush Kharatyan and other in the park to back the activists.
The environmentalists pitched a tent, with a group of police officers impeding their efforts. The police removed the tent, but the activists managed to set up a new one.
Mashtots Park activists freed
Tert.am
The environmental activists taken to the police station from Yerevan’s Mashtots Park earlier today have been already freed.
Three of them – Gor Hakobyan, Karen Harutyunyan and Arman Yaralyan – immediately returned to the park to continue the protest, Anahit Mushegyan, one of the protesters, told Tert.am.
Yeghia Nersisyan, another activist hospitalized after clashes with the police is still under treatment. All others are said to have suffered lighter injuries.
April 30, 2012 at 00:46