The victims told RFE/RL that they and other HAK campaigners were attacked by groups of young men while handing out booklets and leaflets to residents of the city’s northern Avan district.
One of them, Ofelia Markarian, was hit in the head by a stone. “They hit me and my friends and disappeared in a second,” she said, lying on her hospital bed.
Astghik Aghekian, another opposition activist, said of the attackers: “They started yelling, ‘Who the hell are you to stand here? You have no right to hand out booklets here.’ They were so drunk.”
Aghekian said she was repeatedly punched and knocked down after starting to photograph them. “I lay on the floor for two minutes,” she said.
Some witnesses claimed police arrived at the scene more than 30 minutes after being alerted about the violence. But Armen Israelian, chief of the Avan police, denied that. “Who is saying that we arrived late?” he told RFE/RL. “Show me that person.”
Similar incidents were reported in Avan on Sunday. According to Aghekian and other opposition activists, groups of aggressive men used force to stop them distributing election campaign material. Speaking to RFE/RL earlier on Monday, just hours before being assaulted and taken to hospital, Aghekian said, “They started wresting booklets from the girls’ hands. When I tried to stop them they hit me in the neck and I fell over.”
“We were approached by a young man with a thick neck who tried to steal a stack of booklets,” said another woman, Anahit Grigorian. “I said, ‘Young man, what are you doing?’ He said, ‘You must leave this place now. Don’t you know that this is my neighborhood?’”
Levon Yeghiazarian, head of the HAK chapter in Avan, claimed that the two dozen or so thugs were led by members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). But HHK representatives, including Avan’s Mayor Taron Markarian, flatly denied that. Markarian is second on the HHK’s list of candidates in the May 31 elections of a new municipal assembly.
“The Republican Party does not need to engage in such illegal activities because we are interested in making these elections legal and civilized more than anyone else,” said Eduard Sharmazanov, the HHK spokesman.
The HAK insisted, however, that these and other recent attacks on opposition activists campaigning on the streets of Yerevan were organized by the authorities. “This regime gets terrified whenever there is a political process unfolding, accelerating and involving new people in the country,” said Arman Musinian, the spokesman for the opposition alliance. “That’s why they resort to such immoral and illegal actions.”
One of them, Ofelia Markarian, was hit in the head by a stone. “They hit me and my friends and disappeared in a second,” she said, lying on her hospital bed.
Astghik Aghekian, another opposition activist, said of the attackers: “They started yelling, ‘Who the hell are you to stand here? You have no right to hand out booklets here.’ They were so drunk.”
Aghekian said she was repeatedly punched and knocked down after starting to photograph them. “I lay on the floor for two minutes,” she said.
Some witnesses claimed police arrived at the scene more than 30 minutes after being alerted about the violence. But Armen Israelian, chief of the Avan police, denied that. “Who is saying that we arrived late?” he told RFE/RL. “Show me that person.”
Similar incidents were reported in Avan on Sunday. According to Aghekian and other opposition activists, groups of aggressive men used force to stop them distributing election campaign material. Speaking to RFE/RL earlier on Monday, just hours before being assaulted and taken to hospital, Aghekian said, “They started wresting booklets from the girls’ hands. When I tried to stop them they hit me in the neck and I fell over.”
“We were approached by a young man with a thick neck who tried to steal a stack of booklets,” said another woman, Anahit Grigorian. “I said, ‘Young man, what are you doing?’ He said, ‘You must leave this place now. Don’t you know that this is my neighborhood?’”
Levon Yeghiazarian, head of the HAK chapter in Avan, claimed that the two dozen or so thugs were led by members of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). But HHK representatives, including Avan’s Mayor Taron Markarian, flatly denied that. Markarian is second on the HHK’s list of candidates in the May 31 elections of a new municipal assembly.
“The Republican Party does not need to engage in such illegal activities because we are interested in making these elections legal and civilized more than anyone else,” said Eduard Sharmazanov, the HHK spokesman.
The HAK insisted, however, that these and other recent attacks on opposition activists campaigning on the streets of Yerevan were organized by the authorities. “This regime gets terrified whenever there is a political process unfolding, accelerating and involving new people in the country,” said Arman Musinian, the spokesman for the opposition alliance. “That’s why they resort to such immoral and illegal actions.”