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October 15, 2009 The Police Obstruct Civil Awareness Campaign
Yerevan—Yesterday the activists from the National Citizens’ Initiative (NCI) and the Nationalist Students’ Council (NSC) NGOs held a demonstration, at the Yerevan State University (YSU), to voice their protest against the recent signing and ensuing possible approval of the Armenian-Turkish protocols. During the event, the students distributed pamphlets which included excerpts from NCI founder Raffi K. Hovannisian’s “Open Letter to the Armenian Nation” and information on the more dangerous points in these protocols. At approximately 3pm, however, the YSU’s security personnel attempted to prohibit the students’ protest rally, and subsequently the police force, which had arrived upon the call by the university’s security staff, unlawfully detained the NCI and NSC activists.
The students informed of this incident to the NCI coordinator Hovsep Khurshudian and the Heritage Party’s MPs. Next, the chairman of Heritage’s parliamentary faction Stepan Safarian and parliament member Zaruhi Postanjian, together with Khurshudian, went to the Kendron Police Precinct, its Marash Sub-Precinct, and then met with the Kendron police chief in order to ascertain the grounds for the students’ arrest and demanded that the young activists be released immediately. The students were ultimately set free at 6:50pm. According to NCI assistant coordinator Daniel Ioannisian, while in detention, they were questioned and ordered to write an explanation. They were asked questions such as: “With which political forces do you collaborate?”; “Who prompted you to hand out the pamphlets?”; and even “Where have you photocopied the pamphlets?” The National Citizens’ Initiative and the Nationalist Students’ Council NGOs hereby express their resentment over the illegal actions taken by the police, as a result of which, the rights of their activists have been violated, and therefore demand that, hereafter, the law enforcement forces refrain from carrying out such unlawful acts. In any case, our campaigners were able to distribute in excess of one thousand pamphlets yesterday, and we will hand out just as many today. National Citizens’ Initiative
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