On 5
September, late at night, two more participants of protests ongoing in Yerevan
Haykak Arshamyan, Program Coordinator at the Yerevan Press Club, and Souren Saghatelyan,
Board Member of “Transparency International” anti-corruption center, were
beaten in Yerevan.

According
to them, that night they met their friends, including activist Vilen Hakobyan known
as “Boat roller” on Facebook as well as wondered around Opera building. Later
on when they returned home, and Haykak stepped out of the car to unlock the garage,
some people approached him from the back and hit him. Then they attacked Souren
Saghatelyan who tried to go out of the car.

 “They hit me mainly on my head, I have my finger
broken, well, I don’t know. It lasted about one or two minutes, and after that
they ran away in a very organized manner. I assume that it is connected with
the protest actions, although I do not take active part in the actions because
of lack of time. However, they saw me with the guys in that group,” told Souren
Saghatelyan to the CivilNet.

Haykak
told that the attackers probably have followed them on the way. He noticed that
a black Jeep stopped next to them at the same time when they stopped at a
drug-store.

“There were
six or seven trained guys, a beating brigade. They stroke with hands and kicked
us, when they finished beating they asked “are you an Armenian from the
Diaspora?” told Haykak Arshamyan.

After
the attack the ambulance brought the victims to hospital, where they reported
the incident to the Police.

To remind,
prior to this incidents 5 other people were subjected to attacks:

• On 22 August, activist Anoushavan Grigoryan was beaten by
  unknown persons at 5 Komitas St., Yerevan.  
• On August 25, at 1:30 a.m.,
  a few young people approached Mihran
  Margaryan and Babken Ter-Grigoryan in the vicinity of Hotel Ararat and
  asked whether they had participated in the sit-in protests in front of the
  Yerevan municipality. When they heard a positive response, they started
  beating the activists saying: ‘Are you going against our fathers?’

• On 25 August, unknown persons attacked Mickael Tonoyan  at the Victory Bridge, saying ‘Are you
  trying to hurt our fathers?’ then hit
  him and ran away.
• In the early morning of 5 September, at
  Mashtots Ave. a group of people attacked activist Arman Alexanyan.

Civil
Society Institute issued a statement
condemning the violence. A joint statement of more than 20 NGOs was also
distributed.