I guess everybody knew there will be a fight after yesterday’s rally. It was going to serve as the last test to see just how serious both the government and opposition are about the revolutionary way of changing the government after the elections. We can see now, that the government, or Serge Sargsyan and the Republican party to be more correct, are determined to oppress any expression of revolutionism with the most cruel means. The article from Panarmenian below doesn’t talk about the brutality, with which special police forces beat protesters. Let me remind once again, that the organizers of the march had a permission from Yerevan Municipality to organize it. It was clear from the start, that the opposition are determined to pick up a fight, it was also obvious, that government had carefully planned this display of power - from what I read and hear - it was the police forces who provoked the fight in the first place. However, if Serge Sargsyan had planned to scare people, it doesn’t seem to have worked - people have just gotten more frustrated and determined to fight again.

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ An opposition rally was dispersed in Yerevan May 9. Supporters of Impeachment bloc marched to National Security Service building to protest the arrest of former Foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan.

New Times party leader Aram Karapetyan said police met the people with batons and tear-gas. “On half-way ‘red berets’ started pushing the people aside. As result, several men including New Times political council member Rafael Khostikyan and Impeachment bloc member David Matevosyan were injured when approaching the NSS building.

Karapetyan also said 4 rally participants were detained but released later on. “If they want to frighten us this way, they did not succeed. We rate it as political provocation. None of the leaders of Impeachment bloc, New Times party and Republic party left the rally,” he said.

The rally initiators claim that some 20 thousand people took part in it. Police, however, says the number did not exceed 5 thousand, IA Regnum reports.

Armenian parliamentary election in due on May 12.