Alarms: Red Berets Assault Journalist and Delete Footage from Phone

Journalist Arthur Hayrapetyan has filed a report regarding an assault by police officers that occurred on September 15. In an interview with Aravot.am, Hayrapetyan explained that he was attacked before a spontaneous rally of dissatisfied citizens responding to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s controversial statement.

According to him, on the day of the incident, he was on Baghramyan Avenue with human rights defender Marina Poghosyan when she addressed citizens live, stating that the country was in a state of emergency and urged people to take to the streets. Hayrapetyan claimed that one of the police officers constantly provoked them, engaged in a verbal altercation with the human rights defender, and later resorted to vulgar and street-style insults.

At that moment, Hayrapetyan began recording the incident on his phone, but one of the red berets snatched the phone from his hands, deleted the footage, and then threw the phone on the ground. "They forcibly took the phone from me and started to beat me. I remember lying on the asphalt, surrounded by ten or more red berets, hitting me with batons while cursing at me in every possible way. I opened my eyes and saw that I was lying near the 'Evrika' supermarket. I managed to find my glasses and regain my composure, only to find that Marina was gone, and later learned that she had been taken to the Arabkir police station," he said.

To support Poghosyan, Hayrapetyan followed her and filed a report regarding the crime at the Arabkir police station. A criminal case has been opened in connection with the incident.