LIVE: “Yerevan Events: Police Action during Peaceful Assemblies” (video)
July 28, 2016, Yerevan, Armenia: The Institute for War & Peace Reporting(IWPR), in cooperation with the Public Journalism Club (PJC) and the Media Center, is hosting a discussion, entitled “Yerevan Events: Police Action during Peaceful Assemblies”. The discussion will take place at 12:00 on Thursday, July 28, at the Media Center, 30 Saryan Street (2nd floor), Yerevan
The Armenian people have witnessed increasingly aggressive and unlawful behavior of police officers since 2003-2004, according to a statement by the Transparency International Anti-Corruption Center (TIAC) in Armenia from July 22.
During this time, “hundreds of thousands of citizens have been deprived of their right to peaceful assembly and many hundreds were illegally detained and suffered offences,” the statement said.
Recently, when an armed group seized a police station in Yerevan on July 17, law enforcement officials arrested around 150 people who had either come to the area blocked off by police or who had gathered in Liberty Square in the city centre.
In July 17-22, the office of the Human Rights Defender of Armenia received about 114 emergency calls relating to police detention of civilians and incidents where peaceful assembly was obstructed. During the first days of the standoff, the ombudsman’s office logged around 100 detainees in police stations in Yerevan and in the regions of Shirak, Lori and Armavir.
Since July 27, the police have blocked the area adjacent to the occupied police station on Khorenatsi street and arrested a dozen of citizens in the area on the same night.
IWPR has referred to these issues in its latest articles, which can be found here:https://iwpr.net/global/
