The Armenian police dispersed Monday, July 6, the protesters against electricity price hike on Baghramyan Avenue in Yerevan.

Before that, Yerevan Police Deputy Chief Valery Osipyan tried for quite a long time to persuade the members of the initiative to continue the rally at Freedom Square or at least on sidewalks to open the driveway of the avenue for traffic. The demonstrators, however, declined to do so.

The police did not apply any special equipment and did not use force. Several demonstrators were put in police cars, the others were pushed back to the sidewalk, while the police officers formed a human wall between the sidewalk and the roadway.

Prior to this, the Armenian police cleared the Baghramyan Avenue from barricades from garbage cans.

The police issued a statement Monday, according to which they were going to restore traffic on the avenue by removing everything from the driveway. According to the statement, the measure didn’t aim at ending the rally.