Police deploy water cannons to disperse demonstrators from Baghramyan Avenue (Photolure)
YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–The Armenian police have used force and special means to clear the site of a demonstration in a central Yerevan street after a night of standoff with activists protesting against rising electricity prices.
In the early hours on Tuesday, special police forces used water cannons and other equipment to disperse the crowd of hundreds of protesters who spent more than nine hours seated in the street not far from the presidential compound.
The protesters insisted that their actions were peaceful and demanded that President Serzh Sarkisian revoke the decision made by state regulators to raise electricity prices by 16 percent beginning August 1.
After several warnings that the protest was “unlawfulâ€