On September 21, during the “Hayazn” party organized sovereignty march, a member of “Freedom Fighters Alliance”, Smbat Hakobyan, was attacked. The beaters, whom some of the protest participants have approached with questions have answered: special services or special operations. This was told to Aravot.am by “Hayazn” member party Armen Aghayan.
“The guys have not listened well enough, either they were introduced as special services or have said that they are doing special operations. When the march was over, and the people were walking in different directions, Smbat was walking toward the Republic square, in the direction of Abovyan Street. At one point, he was ahead of the group, the eyewitnesses told me that several people were persecuting Hakobyan during the march, as soon as they saw that he was separated from the group, they have approached and pushed him into a yard, there was a metal door there, it was a construction site. One person was standing at the metal door not to allow people to come in, the others have started beating Smbat. One of the eyewitnesses had approached them to ask, where did you take Smbat, they have shown a document saying, a special service or special operations, and continued beating Smbat. They were dressed in civilian clothes. The beaters have haunted Smbat from the intersection of Melik Adamyan-Tigran Mets Streets,” told Mr. Aghayan, presenting what was told by the eyewitnesses of the incident.
Mr. Aghayan said that Smbat Hakobyan was taken to hospital by ambulance. “Apparently, he was hit over the head by a stone, as they were saying that it was strongly bleeding”. Note that today, the “Hayazn” party had organized a march to the RPA office, where the participant of the march, Smbat Hakobyan, have urged the RA citizens in his speech to stand up and remove the government.
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To the question of Aravot.am of whether these anti-government calls could be the cause of beating Hakobyan, Armen Aghayan said it could be as specific, earmarked attempt to punish Smbat so as an attempt to punish anyone of the participants of the march – the speakers of the march. “There could be one more reason too which we do not know. Even if Smbat has said some things, I do not think that they were illegal, even if they were illegal, then definitely the answer should not be the beating. If he has said something illegal or a threat, they could have called a police. The document that they showed to the eyewitnesses, they could not differentiate whether it was fake or not. The beaters were middle-aged men and fairly sturdy.”
Nelly BABAYAN
Photos from Maxim Sargsyan’s Facebook page
