Tweet
OCCUPY MASHTOTS PARK ACTIVISTS PITCH FIRST TENT WHILE SURROUNDED BY POLICE (VIDEO)
epress.am
03.13.2012
Environmental and civic activists who have been coming nearly every
day for almost a month to Mashtots Park to protest the construction
of shops pitched their first tent earlier today to kick off the next
round of their activism - a round-the-clock sit-in.
Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Karen Movsisyan urged activists to remove
the tent, saying that pitching a tent is not covered under the law
on freedom of assembly, but activists did not comply. Lawyer Artur
Grigoryan defending the activists replied, "All that which is not
prohibited is protected by the law on rallies."
The deputy police chief then asked to remove the tent "at least for
the time being," until he procures permission for pitching the tent
from Yerevan City Hall. "If not for the sake of the law, then at least
for me, remove the tent," he added as a final attempt. Negotiations
between the officer and activists were still ongoing at the time
of publication.
At the time, activists had surrounded the tent, who were, in turn,
surrounded by police.
Activist Yeghia Nersisyan said the first tent is symbolic and they're
not going to remove it.
epress.am
03.13.2012
Environmental and civic activists who have been coming nearly every
day for almost a month to Mashtots Park to protest the construction
of shops pitched their first tent earlier today to kick off the next
round of their activism - a round-the-clock sit-in.
Yerevan Deputy Police Chief Karen Movsisyan urged activists to remove
the tent, saying that pitching a tent is not covered under the law
on freedom of assembly, but activists did not comply. Lawyer Artur
Grigoryan defending the activists replied, "All that which is not
prohibited is protected by the law on rallies."
The deputy police chief then asked to remove the tent "at least for
the time being," until he procures permission for pitching the tent
from Yerevan City Hall. "If not for the sake of the law, then at least
for me, remove the tent," he added as a final attempt. Negotiations
between the officer and activists were still ongoing at the time
of publication.
At the time, activists had surrounded the tent, who were, in turn,
surrounded by police.
Activist Yeghia Nersisyan said the first tent is symbolic and they're
not going to remove it.