Armenian opposition leaders tell presser about arrests

Noyan Tapan news agency
5 Apr 04

YEREVAN

Numerous opposition activists have been arrested in Yerevan and
regions of Armenia over the last two days, the leader of the Justice
bloc, Stepan Demirchyan, and the chairman of the National Unity party,
Artashes Gegamyan, told a press conference at the National Assembly on
5 April.

Gegamyan said that there were many women among those arrested.
According to figures received on the same day, 47 activists of the
National Unity were arrested. The leader of the party said the arrests
were carried out within two days without any legal grounds for them.

Stepan Demirchyan, in turn, also spoke about the arrests, adding that
the numbers are being clarified. In particular, a member of the
political board of the Anrapetutyun Party, Suren Surenyants, has been
arrested. The head of the Armavir territorial organization of the
People’s Party of Armenia and former deputy, Aramais Barsegyan, was
attacked on 3 April.

In the early hours of 5 April, officers of the Arabkir police station
tried to break into the flat of Dustrik Mkhitaryan, member of the
board of the National Democratic Party. Mkhitaryan told a
correspondent of Noyan Tapan news agency that she barred the law
enforcers from her house and called the party leader Shavarsh
Kocharyan, whose arrival at the scene of the incident saved her from
the arrest. Mkhitaryan added that the police refused to show any
documents and explained the search of her flat by a theft which
happened nearby.

The chairman of the New Times party, Aram Karapetyan, was also
arrested, Demirchyan said. Demirchyan and Gegamyan said that the
arrests were likely to continue.