Astghik Aghekyan, an activist of the "SOS! Save Afrikyans' Club Building!" public interest group was detained. She tore the poster "Better Yerevan".
Aghekyan's supporters say that the girl was forced to get into the car and was taken to the central department of the Yerevan Police. "When we saw that they were going to build a temporary fence around the building, we tried to express our protest and threw stones at the fence. Astghik proved to be braver and tore the poster. Afterwards, the police used force when trying to make her get into the car", Aghekyan's supporters say.
To recall, on June 17, Sona Haroutiounyan, another activist of the "SOS! Save Afrikyans' Club Building!" public interest group, was detained. She spent 3 hours at the police station. "Sona Haroutiunyan has been detained on suspicion of causing damage to others' property and for bearing cold arms," the Police said. The activist's supporters say she tried to prevent unlawful demolition of the Afrikyans' Club Building.
The Afrikyan building, located on 11 Teryan Street, was built at the end of the 19th century. Based on a Government decision in 2004, the building was included in the state list of historical and cultural immovable monuments of the city of Yerevan as a national monument. According to a new Government decision the Afrikyan building will be dismantled and rebuilt at another location. The building is included in the "Old Yerevan" program, which will be designed and implemented in the neighboring streets of Abovyan, Byuzand, Koghbatsi and Aram.