On February 4, 2020, at 6 pm, four transgender people were assaulted at the “Tashir Pizza” food center located in the Northern Avenue, Yerevan city, which resulted in the physical injuries, including a two-sided nose fracture of a transgender woman A.Q. 

Arriving at “Tashir Pizza” food center on that day, the transgender people immediately noticed the unfriendly, even discriminatory attitude of their staff member towards them. The employee served them in a mockery tone by drawing the attention of other clients to the transgender women.

Transgender activist Lilit Martirosyan asked to call the manager to improve the attitude of the service provider who was devoid of ethics, but even after that the waiter continued to taunt and mistreat the transgender women, A.Q. personally warned the waiter that he behaved properly, however, after that warning the transgender woman received offensive attitude and abusive remarks after which the waiter struck A.Q. by breaking her nose in the hall in the presence of other clients. Subsequently, clients in the hall encouraged the waiter’s illegal activities and also displayed intolerant and discriminatory behavior towards the transgender women.

To Lilit Martirosyan’s alarm, the police arrived at the crime scene and decided to detain the transgender women and the employee of “Tashir Pizza” at the police station of the center, where the victim transgender women testified on the basis of which a preliminary investigation was launched.

Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO strongly condemns crimes based on hatred and discrimination and promises to pursue the further development of the cases and fair trials. Right Side Human Rights Defender NGO also calls on the “Tashir Pizza” Pizza Network to review their employees’ unprofessional behavior and the attitude towards customers and severely penalize employees with similar behavior.

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Feb 13, 2020 Armenia, Yerevan