Police disrupt vendors’ protest in Yerevan
Yerevan street traders today staged another protest outside the presidential residence demanding to meet with the Armenian President. However, the demonstrators were prohibited from getting closer to the residence at 26 Baghramyan Ave.
The traders were holding posters and placards with inscriptions "Serzh Sargsyan, protect our right to work," "Employment deprivation is a state crime," "We want to work," "People go hungry in the country you are longing for."
They say that Serzh Sargsyan pledged to elaborate a program of development while the result was a program of decline.
"By banning street trade the authorities violently infringed our rights and prohibited us from earning our daily bread," said Juliette Sargsyan.
"We demand that the authorities take us out of this ooze. They are beautifying and greening the capital without paying the slightest attention to its desperate and hungry citizens," she added.
Joining the demonstrators was Heritage Party MP Zaruhi Postanjyan, who tried to negotiate with the policemen.
"The police say they fear lest the demonstrators should breach the security of the country. This is a most ridiculous and ungrounded explanation which can be ignored by the demonstrators," said Postanjyan.
The protesters tried to bypass the police and hold a sit-in in the vicinity of the Opera House but they were sent back by the police.
Street traders have been organizing protest actions protesting the Municiplaity's clampdown on street trade since January this year.
