VIDEO: You Didn't Participate in the War, Are You Going to a Rally? Police on Stopping Vehicle with Artsakh License Plate

Seyda Poghosyan shared a post on her Facebook page where she recounts how police stopped her friend's car, who had sounded the horn. "But it turned out that the problem was not the horn, but the fact that the car had Artsakh license plates. Within minutes, 4 police cars approached my friend, none of the 8 officers were armed with recording devices, which gave them the freedom to take provocative steps and speak in street language about irrelevant issues," she wrote.

Afterward, the police stated that the vehicle needed to be taken to a penalty parking lot on the grounds that it was wanted. Poghosyan shared videos in the comments section of her post, where it can be heard that the police officers ask the Artsakh resident, "Are you going to a rally? You didn't participate in the Artsakh war, are you going to a rally?" According to Poghosyan, the police are inciting animosity.

Regarding the incident, Zardand Gabrielyan, head of the Media Relations, Analysis, and Information Division of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, told Tert.am: "We are clarifying that the mentioned vehicle was stopped for a violation specified in part 19 of Article 124 of the Administrative Violations Code of the Republic of Armenia, after which it became clear that the license plates of this vehicle were listed among the wanted vehicles. Based on point 'zh' of part 1 of Article 18 of the RA Law on Ensuring Road Traffic Safety, the vehicle was moved to a secure area according to the procedure established by Article 18.1 of the same law. Investigations revealed that the mentioned vehicle is not actually on the wanted list, after which it was released from the secure area."

When asked about the video where it can be clearly heard that the officer says to the citizen, "Are you going to a rally? You didn't participate in the Artsakh war, are you going to a rally?", and whether the police have the right to say such things, Gabrielyan noted that an inquiry should be sent for additional information.