The crowd carried signs and banners reading "Traitors, Get Out", "No to the Turkish Protocols" and "Those Who Hand Over Lands Are Traitors". "Miatsum" member Jirayr Sefilyan said that his organization, contrary to others, rejects the protocols outright as well as the process that has lead to their signing. "We have no illusions that our symbolic burning of the protocols will stop the process. It is simply an outburst of the majority of the people," Mr. Sefilyan noted. A scuffle broke out between the protestors and police when Mrs. Parandzem, a mother of a fallen freedom fighter, tried to burn a photo of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. A top-ranking police official on the scene called "Miatsum" member Tigran Khzmalyan a "failed artist" and suggested that the director stick to making movies and sculpture. In response, Mr. Khzmalyan stated that the actions and insults of the police only go to show the deep level of alienation between the current regime and the public at large. "The police should be defending the public and the constitution and not the band of thugs who trample these values," he stated. Mr. Sefilyan said they weren’t aware that the woman intended to burn a photo of the president and that it was a spontaneous act. "What took place was a spontaneous outburst but a citizen has the right to express an opinion in the way he or she sees fit. It was a symbolic act that will reverberate in the public’s eye," he noted. Mr. Sefilyan declared that the organization would step up its propaganda campaign against the protocols and that similar symbolic burnings of the document and a signature petition would soon take place in various Yerevan neighbourhoods.