Alik Sargsyan's most fearsome foe: she who carries the camera, the pen, and a brain

Attempts by opposition demonstrators to peacefully just exist, sit, or just walk in the newly re-opened Liberty Square continued after May 29, despite attempts by the RA police and red berets and other such characters to stop them. On May 31, according to various reports, somewhere between tens to 100 demonstrators were present, and approximately 17 individuals were taken into custody, including SDHP chairwoman Lyudmila Sargsyan. 3 of those 17 were reporters, two from HZH and one from Hayk. Ani Gevorgyan, a photojournalist from HZH was one of those three, she was later arrested, she remains in police custody.

She is about 22 or 23 years old per reports. She is charged with hitting one of the police in the face, but per a witness statement in a video taken during the clashes with police, she is the one who got hit - another of the banditocracy's favorite techniques: figure out what they were going to say about you, and turn it around. In fact, it seems she was picked out in advance, as the video records one of the police saying “this is that very journalist.”

Now, why would the RA police and red berets and the rest of that posse (since they are exactly that, a posse) want to persecute this young woman? Just take a look at her recent writings - in addition to working for HZH, a strongly pro-opposition newspaper, whose editor-in-chief is Nikol Pashinyan - she has been writing about Alik Sargsyan, and the RA police. Most recently she commented on just how similar the video for the RA police is to the video for the Georgian police.

On a side note, the police and red berets and the rest of them have somehow decided that undercover, plainclothes police are the way to go in these situations (one of their older strategies). I'm not sure why, since they're easy to pick out - watch any of the videos and within seconds its clear who is who. I wonder if it is for photos, so it appears that there are fewer law enforcement, or to mislead people, or something else entirely.

If I have some time, I'll start a nice little collage of the cops in plainclothes, just so they don't feel underappreciated. We wouldn't want that, now would we?


For more reading: Tert
HZH "Once bit, twice shy", HZH "Revenge"
ArmeniaNow, A1plus "Alik Sargsyan's Revenge"
RFE/RL