26 February 2008, 12:05
Opposition activist Suren Surenyants arrested in Armenia
In the evening on February 25, Suren Surenyants, a member of the Political Board of the "Republic" opposition party, was forced to the police station and then arrested, when he was leaving the Freedom Square of the capital of Armenia. This news was reported on February 26 at the briefing by Arman Musinyan, press secretary of the Election Office of Levon Ter-Petrosyan.
The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent reports that Mr Musinyan has denied the information about release of earlier arrested activists of the opposition. In particular, as he said, Petros Makeyan, Chairman of the Party "Democratic Homeland", Smbat Aivazyan, a member of the Political Board of the "Republic" Party and former deputy of the National Assembly, Gagik Dzhangiryan, former Deputy General Public Prosecutor, and Aram Karapetyan, Chairman of the "New Times" Party, are still behind the bars.
In the evening of February 25 and since early morning of February 26, members of law enforcement bodies have been conducting searches in the apartments of Garnik Markaryan, Chairman of the Party "Homeland and Honour", and Samvel Arutyunyan, leader of the Public Organization "Rallying of Armenian Fighters". These two supporters of Levon Ter-Petrosyan are now at police stations. According to the Election Office of Ter-Petrosyan, at the moment, policemen have surrounded the house of Gurgen Egiazaryan, another activist of the opposition, Ter-Petrosyan's election agent and former deputy head of the National Security Service.
Currently, a rally of the opposition has already begun in the Freedom Square. Here, in the same Square, the hunger strike is going on in protest against the results of the election that had been held with a huge number of violations. The number of hunger-strikers has increased from seven up to seventeen persons.
Author: Lilit Ovanisyan, CK correspondent
