Published since 07.2002
Published on April 18, 2008
CLAIMS AND COUNTERCLAIMS: LAWSUITS SPLIT POLICE AGAINST JOURNALIST IN GYUMRI
- The Gyumri police is asking a court to impose a 50,000 drams (about $170) fine on the chairman of the Gyumri Journalists Club for refusal to obey the demands of the police during a March 2 political protest rally in Gyumri. In the same court, the journalists club director, Levon Barseghyan, is counter-suing the police. The complaints stem from an encounter in which Barseghyan is charged with staging a rally, in violation of the state of emergency that existed after the violence of March 1 in Yerevan. Gagik Badoyan, head of the Investigation department of the Gyumri branch of the Shirak Province Police claims that Barseghyan instigated a mass gathering and showed up at it to a waiting crowd. Barseghyan claims that he simply arrived by car to Gyumri’s Theater Square to “have a walk” when he encountered a group of protestors. “The police had clear information a rally was to be held in the Theater Square without a notification and the talks of the people in the square showed people were expecting Levon Barseghyan. As Barseghyan came, he insisted he had no intention to hold a rally and had arrived there to have a walk. But he had not come for a walk as his gestures talked of a different thing,” said police major Badoyan, indicating that Barseghyan waved for others to gather. In his counterclaim Barseghyan says: “I got out of the car I saw many acquaintances of mine and just greeted them from afar with a gesture.” Forty one year old Barseghyan, a veteran journalist, is one of the founders of the first TV company in Gyunri in 1992. In 2000 Barseghyan founded Asparez journalist’s club non-governmental organization which organizes training seminars for journalists as well as press-conferences. Barseghyan did not take part in the spontaneous rally on March 1 in Gyumri, as he was in the capital; he neither managed to enter the Theater Square on March 2, because the square was surrounded by the police and no one was allowed to enter it. Two police officers had taken Barseghyan to the Gyumri police department, where he was given a record some 3 hours later that said particularly Barseghyan made calls for gathering near the platform to start the rally and did not obey the warnings of the police. “I state very seriously I have been the first to be detained for a political walk. I came to Sayat Nova Street to have a walk on March 2, to talk to people and to have a public speech in case of necessity. Find a law that says one has no right to make calls for starting a rally. Besides, there are witnesses that the Theater Square was closed to the public all that time. There has not been even a policeman in the square as they stood on the perimeter. How could I make calls?” says Barseghyan. In response to the counterclaim the Shirak Police Province department mentioned the police was ordered to ban the rally. But Barseghyan claims the rally was spontaneous, based on events in the capital and, therefore, could not have been called according to later-imposed restrictions. “No one could foresee violent force would be used against peaceful demonstrators there would be an assault, they would beat and crash the people, then beat them in front of the French Embassy in Liberty Square in Yerevan so that we could inform the authorities 3-4 days before saying we want to organize a rally against the beating of the people,” says Barseghyan. Barsegyan claims the deputy head of the Police Shirak province department Vazgen Harutyunyan attacked him on March 2. Barseghyan has offered to withdraw his lawsuit if the police would withdraw theirs.
- Ani Hakobyan
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© AUA
Today in Armenian history- 1862 Birth of H.F.B. Lynch in London of Irish parentage. Besides his study of law, he became noted as a writer, a geographer, a politician, and a traveller, with a keen interest in Armenia. His two-volume book on his Armenia travels is a classic and describes life in Armenia at the end of the 19th century. In 1906, he was elected to serve as a member of the British Parliament. (He died in London on 1913 11 24).
- 1877 The Yerevan detachment of the Russian forces, headed by General Ter-Ghukasov, occupies Bayazet for 12 days with the help of Armenian home guards.
- 1933 Death of Avetik Sahakian (Father Abraham), the Parliamentary President of the First Armenian Republic.
- 1953 The administrative districts of Yerevan, Kirovakan, and Leninakan are dissolved.
- 1958 Inauguration of the Armenian SSR's Art Institute.
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