Two young opposition activists were attacked and beaten up by unknown men in downtown Yerevan late on Wednesday while publicizing a rally to be held by the opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) on Friday.
They both were hospitalized with serious injuries. The police launched a criminal investigation shortly afterwards, ordering a forensic medical examination of the 17-year-old victims.
The incidents came the day after the chief of the Armenian police, Alik Sargsian, pledged to investigate similar attacks reported earlier this week. Groups of plainclothes men reportedly assaulted opposition youths who distributed leaflets urging Yerevan residents to attend the HAK rally sanctioned by the municipal authorities. Opposition newspapers printed on Tuesday photographs of several men allegedly involved in the violence along with the license plates of their cars.
In a statement on Wednesday night, the HAK accused the Armenian government and police of organizing the attacks, saying that the anti-opposition thugs were directed by police agents. It argued that “the bandits immediately appear in places where leaflets are distributed.” “The police locate leaflet distributors and immediately tip off bandit gangs,” charged the opposition alliance.
Sargsian, the police chief, denied such claims as he spoke at a news conference on Tuesday. He said he “can’t imagine” his officers ordering, condoning or refusing to stop such attacks.
Levon Zurabian, a top HAK coordinator, claimed that the police chief of Yerevan’s central administrative district, Ashot Karapetian, warned him by phone on Wednesday night that one of the hospitalized activists, Vahagn Gevorgian, will face criminal prosecution unless he stops implicating the police in the violence. “He said Vahagn is saying something bad about the police,” Zurabian told RFE/RL. “They probably sent police investigators to talk to the lad.”
“The authorities are not only proving that the attacks were fully organized and directed by the police but are also engaging in an overt blackmail of the opposition and its activists,” said Zurabian.
The latest attacks were also condemned by Armen Harutiunian, Armenia’s state human rights ombudsman. In a statement on Thursday, Harutiunian urged law-enforcement authorities to quickly identify and punish the attackers. He warned that failure to do so “could be viewed as an encouragement of such incidents.”
The police did not immediately respond to the opposition allegations. In another statement on Thursday, they said police officers themselves were attacked by a group of young people who “shouted, made noise, attracting the attention of passers-by, and then did not obey their legitimate orders” near a park in central Yerevan. The opposition activists were beaten in the same area.
The incidents came the day after the chief of the Armenian police, Alik Sargsian, pledged to investigate similar attacks reported earlier this week. Groups of plainclothes men reportedly assaulted opposition youths who distributed leaflets urging Yerevan residents to attend the HAK rally sanctioned by the municipal authorities. Opposition newspapers printed on Tuesday photographs of several men allegedly involved in the violence along with the license plates of their cars.
In a statement on Wednesday night, the HAK accused the Armenian government and police of organizing the attacks, saying that the anti-opposition thugs were directed by police agents. It argued that “the bandits immediately appear in places where leaflets are distributed.” “The police locate leaflet distributors and immediately tip off bandit gangs,” charged the opposition alliance.
Sargsian, the police chief, denied such claims as he spoke at a news conference on Tuesday. He said he “can’t imagine” his officers ordering, condoning or refusing to stop such attacks.
Levon Zurabian, a top HAK coordinator, claimed that the police chief of Yerevan’s central administrative district, Ashot Karapetian, warned him by phone on Wednesday night that one of the hospitalized activists, Vahagn Gevorgian, will face criminal prosecution unless he stops implicating the police in the violence. “He said Vahagn is saying something bad about the police,” Zurabian told RFE/RL. “They probably sent police investigators to talk to the lad.”
“The authorities are not only proving that the attacks were fully organized and directed by the police but are also engaging in an overt blackmail of the opposition and its activists,” said Zurabian.
The latest attacks were also condemned by Armen Harutiunian, Armenia’s state human rights ombudsman. In a statement on Thursday, Harutiunian urged law-enforcement authorities to quickly identify and punish the attackers. He warned that failure to do so “could be viewed as an encouragement of such incidents.”
The police did not immediately respond to the opposition allegations. In another statement on Thursday, they said police officers themselves were attacked by a group of young people who “shouted, made noise, attracting the attention of passers-by, and then did not obey their legitimate orders” near a park in central Yerevan. The opposition activists were beaten in the same area.