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Today on March 17, 2011 Vanadzor residents are again deprived of the chance to travel to Yerevan. Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly Vanadzor office staff has conducted a monitoring at Vanadzor station and  Vanadzor-Spitak highway.

The monitoring conducted at Vanadzor station at approximately 9:00 a.m. of March 17 revealed that there were no minibuses leaving for Yerevan. The passengers were waiting to verify when they will get a chance to get to Yerevan. In response to their inquiries, the bus station coordinator replied,-” There will be no minibuses available for the whole day because of demonstrations in Yerevan”.

One of the citizens noted,-”What if my child has to take an exam?” and the employee responded,-”People are being late for operations and you are worried about an exam!”.
The residents also complained that they were unable to use taxis, because, according to the given command, no vehicles could leave for Yerevan. The passengers waiting at the station were trying to rent private taxis with higher rates (during our monitoring the citizens were ready to pay 2500 AMD instead of 2000 AMD). There were very few cars along Vanadzor-Spitak highway though no police officials were present. It should be noted that this is the third case of violating citizens’ right to free movement within 2011.

The first case occurred on February 15 of 2011, when access of either Gyumri or Vanadzor drivers holding Georgian state license plates was banned to Vanadzor and Gyumri respectively. The second case happened on February 18 when Vanadzor residents were prohibited to leave for Yerevan to participate in the rally held by Armenian National Congress.