OSCE representative is aware of 'street art protest' with cardboard tank
Dunja Mijatović, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, is aware that an artist is being tried in Armenia for organizing an unusual ‘street art protest’ in Yerevan. Civil activist Artak Gevorgyan is facing up to two years in prison for driving a cardboard tank through Yerevan streets and hitting the metal gates of the National Security Service last summer. Armenian journalist Arman Gharibyan, who is studying at the Central European University (CEU) in Budapest, Hungary, has spoken about the violence against the civil activist during a meeting with Dunja Mijatović and David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression. He also asked what they could do to help Artak. “Dunja Mijatović was aware of the trial, she said she had already appealed to the Armenian authorities, though not officially, urging them to stop the persecution of the artist. Unlike the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, David Kaye was not familiar with the case. He said they according to their mandate, they could not interfere unless they were asked to,” Arman informed us from Budapest. During the CEU-hosted meeting, Dunja Mijatović and David Kaye spokes about freedom of expression of artists. Artak Gevorgyan is accused of grossly violating public order by way of disrupting the normal activities of security personnel at the NSS building, causing fears over property protection.
