Armenian Riot Police Break Up Election Protest

Reuters has an update on this morning’s events in Yerevan when police finally moved in to disperse opposition supporters camped out overnight in the capital’s Liberty Square. The report also clarifies the situation of Levon Ter-Petrossian. According to Reuters, the former president is not under arrest.

The riot police moved into the square early on Saturday after authorities had said they were losing patience with the protests, led by Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Armenia’s first president after independence from the Soviet Union.

“We were asleep,” said one of the protesters who had been keeping an overnight vigil in the square.

“They came and they started to beat us up. They had truncheons,” said the man, who showed Reuters a broken finger. He declined to give his name.

The protests had risked destabilising Armenia, a former Soviet republic that lies in a Caucasus mountains region now emerging as an important transit route for oil and gas supplies from the Caspian Sea to world markets.

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Ter-Petrosyan, who ran in the election, launched the protests after alleging Sarksyan had used ballot-stuffing and intimidation to steal victory. Sarksyan denied the charges, and Western observers have called the vote broadly fair.

At their peak the protests attracted tens of thousands of people, though numbers had fallen off in the past few days.

A spokesman for Ter-Petrosyan said riot police moved in at 7.30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Saturday. “They came, they beat people up and they removed everyone,” said Arman Musinyan.

Ter-Petrosyan was not detained and had returned home, he said, adding the opposition planned to attempt a further protest later on Saturday.

But a Reuters correspondent at Freedom Square said it was now surrounded by several hundred police with riot shields and that they were not allowing anyone access.

A group of about 15 people began shouting “Levon! Levon!” near the square. Police quickly moved in to disperse them, the correspondent said.