The standoff between police and protesters at the Mashtots Park construction site continued yesterday.

Protestors had gone to the Yerevan Municipality to meet with Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan, but he never showed-up.

Upon returning to the park, the protestors saw that construction was continuing so they pushed their way inside, effectively putting a halt to further work.

During the ensuing hours, police demanded that the activists leave the area or be forcibly removed.

A number of politicians and well-known entertainers also showed up at the site – Heritage Party MP’s Raffi Hovannisian and Armen Martirosyan, activists from the Sardarapat Movement, and the singers Aramo and Vladimir Barkhoyan.

Activists pointed to a tree where workers had dumped concrete. The law stipulates that a five meter area must separate all construction work from any standing tree.

Police Deputy Colonel Karen Movsisyan arrived on the scene and called on the crowd, now chanting slogans, to obey the orders of the police to disperse.

Protestors responded by saying they would only leave if a representative from the mayor’s office arrived with a decision to cease construction.

Movsisyan told the protestors that they were illegally occupying a leased construction site and that all necessary measures would be taken to remove them if they didn’t leave voluntarily.

Meri Khachatryan, a lawyer representing the activists, said they wanted to see municipal documentation as proof that the construction was legal.

Movsisyan said he would temporarily halt construction until a representative from the Yerevan Municipality arrived with such documentation but reaffirmed his demand that protestors disperse.

Another police official, Deputy-Colonel Robert Mikoyan, ordered the activists not to shout slogans and thus disturb newborn babies in a nearby maternity hospital.

This elicited laughter among the activists who said construction noise was one hundred times worse.

Melkonian then said that the protest was no longer a “spontaneous” event but had evolved into an “organized” demonstration and that, “I have videotape as to who the organizers are.”

Melkonian then threatened organizers with legal action.

Vahram Soghomonyan, one of the protestors, told the police official that, “There is such a thing as the right to protest on this earth.”

Meri Khachatryan chimed in and argued that the Yerevan Municipality had had dumped the matter on the shoulders of the police.

Melkonyan promised to convey the concerns of the activists to his higher ups if they would leave the area.

Protestors stated that they had presented a package to the Yerevan Municipality detailing that the entire Mashtots Park development plan violated several laws on the books regarding urban construction and that their demand remained a halt to further construction.

Heritage Party MP Anahit Bakhshyan then arrived on the scene and conferred with police brass.

She told them that all the documents allegedly allowing for the construction were illegal and that the municipality needed to reverse its decision.

The MP urged the protestors to continue their fight for justice in the name of Yerevan’s parks.

Lawyer Meri Khachatryan said that they planned to petition the president on the matter.