Mayoralty of Yerevan refused to sanction opposition's protest action

On June 11, the Mayoralty of Yerevan rejected the application submitted by Karapet Rubinyan, coordinator of the Committee in Defence of Political Prisoners and Persecuted Persons, on holding a sit-in protest action on June 18 in the Freedom Square.

Human rights activist Vardan Arutyunyan, a member of the Committee, said: "Since we had planned a mass action, now I can tell with confidence that it should have been a rather mass action held under the law, observance of public order, etc. But they've just banned it. We wanted to demand release of 15 political prisoners; each of them is there for his political views and activities."

On that very day earlier, when Gagik Bagdasaryan, Plenipotentiary of the Mayor of Yerevan, had a talk at the Mayoralty of Yerevan with Karapet Rubinyan, chairman of the above Committee, he said that they had all grounds to reject the notification, as reported by the "NEWS.am" Agency.

Vardan Arutyunyan has also treated the refusal as "unjustified" and said that this application was only the first attempt, which has proved that "the authorities are inclined to reject all the applications related to the Freedom Square," Radio Liberty quotes the human rights activist.