According to Haykakan Zhamanak daily, Armenian police has launched a staff “extermination” over crossed out portraits of President Sargsyan with a “Do Not Obey” sign drawn throughout Yerevan overnight.

On the following morning, groups of policemen were combing the city center in search of drawings which were later covered up with paint by people in civilian clothes.

The identities of those who pained the drawings on the streets and buildings are unknown, the paper said. According to some reports, the move was initiated in reply to an assault on members of Backstroke art group, orchestrated by Yerevan State University History Department dean Edik Minasyan.

A number of high-ranking police officials were dismissed from their posts over the incident.