Human rights activists have condemned the Armenian police for using force and special means to clear the site of a demonstration in central Yerevan’s Baghramyan Avenue this morning, saying that the actions of law-enforcement bodies were unlawful.

In videos spread by different media sources it is clearly seen that police workers dressed as civilians attack protesters after the water cannon is applied and remove them from the sight dragging and swearing at them, applying force.

Human rights activists consider actions by plainclothes police officers to be unlawful. They say that the police have no right to get in contact with the citizens without a uniform and a police badge.

“It is forbidden by law and it is an obvious illegality, because during a public event police staff must be in uniforms, visible so that their actions are understood. If police dressed as civilian are used, it means the police have a predisposed attitude toward the protest,” the head of the Vanadzor office of the Helsinki Citizens Assembly Artur Sakunts told ArmeniaNow.

Lawyer Yervand Varosyan, who spent the night at the site, said that he would not distinguish the actions of the police in uniform and those dressed as civilians.

“All their actions were illegal, they acted unlawfully and disproportionately,” Varosyan said.

In a statement the Police said that “in the given situation the police applied force based on Article 34 of the Armenian Law on Freedom of Assembly, according to which when the protest is not willing to cease the police disperses the protest.”

Meanwhile, Rights and Freedom center president, human rights activist Vardan Harutyunyan said: nobody had the right to apply force against peaceful protesters, the protest was within law and nobody broke laws.

“Plainclothes police act as common provocateurs, as was the case with Shant Harutyunyan. In one case they are police, in another – provocateurs, the same pack of wolves, but in different time periods, playing different roles and this part was illegal,” Harutyunyan told ArmeniaNow.

Political analyst Styopa Safaryan said that after the 2008 post-election protest crackdown changes were made in the law about the police, because the quelling of those riots were the precedent.

“We made it into law that they have to act in police uniforms, but the Armenian police constantly violate the law. This is a very serious problem; the police do not realize what responsibility they are getting under. In a situation like this many unpleasant events might happen and they might be carried out by others, because the police actions open up room for criminal actions,” Safaryan told ArmeniaNow.