WOMAN POWER: JAILED OPPOSITIONISTS’ RELATIVES RAISE CONCERNS BEFORE EUROPE
A group of Armenian women claiming that their jailed relatives are political prisoners are set to turn areas near major European embassies and representations in Yerevan into scenes of their daily protests as a prestigious pan-European organization’s key body is discussing Armenia this week. The wives and other relatives of jailed opposition members continued their protest on Tuesday near the French Embassy in Yerevan. Tomorrow it will proceed near the Embassy of Germany and on Thursday, the day when the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is due to review the situation of democratic institutions in Armenia, women plan to hold a picket near the Council of Europe’s Yerevan office. Dozens who claim that their family members are political prisoners began the four-day protest campaign on Monday, some wearing imitation handcuffs and carrying images of their jailed loved ones. “We show that as wives, mothers, relatives of political prisoners we subscribe to the demands that have already been sent to the Council of Europe,” Melissa Brown, the American wife of Armenia’s jailed ex-foreign minister Alexander Arzumanyan, said. Students of the European Academy situated near the Council of Europe’s office tried to approach the protesting women, however police advised them to go away. Tsovinar Samsonyan, the wife of jailed oppositionist Hovhannes Ghazaryan, says it is their duty to stage some actions. “This is not only the issue of our husbands, but also that of the whole Armenian people. If a man is illegally kept in custody, the same fate may threaten anyone,” she said. And Anahit Grigoryan, who said she was an ordinary citizen who joined the women’s protests, said that she was fighting for her rights to live as a freewoman in her country. “I cannot accept that such guys are in jail on fabricated cases and outside there is a feast where they eat cakes and stage hot air balloon shows. This is inadmissible. An elected president takes an oath in front of his people, he does not run away and avoid his people,” she claimed. The women said they would continue their protest using all legal means. Meanwhile, in an interview with Russia’s Novye Izvestiya newspaper on April 14, Armenia’s first president and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan described Armenia as the only country of the Council of Europe where there are political prisoners. “The number of political prisoners in Armenia reaches 150. Almost all of my proxies, all heads of my campaign offices have been arrested,” Ter-Petrosyan said. Brown said that on Monday they sent a letter to the PACE. The letter, according to her, had been signed by thousands of citizens who expect “an independent inquiry into the March 1 events, express their concern over arrests of opposition leaders and demand that the amendments to Armenia’s law on assemblies be recognized as anti-democratic.”
- Gayane Mkrtchyan
NOW THERE ARE 10: TWO, INCLUDING TEENAGE CONSCRIPT, SUCCUMB TO MARCH 1 WOUNDS
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WOMAN POWER: JAILED OPPOSITIONISTS’ RELATIVES RAISE CONCERNS BEFORE EUROPE
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Gayane MkrtchyanNOW THERE ARE 10: TWO, INCLUDING TEENAGE CONSCRIPT, SUCCUMB TO MARCH 1 WOUNDS
Gayane Mkrtchyan
- 1862 Birth of H.F.B. Lynch in London of Irish parentage. Besides his study of law, he became noted as a writer, a geographer, a politician, and a traveller, with a keen interest in Armenia. His two-volume book on his Armenia travels is a classic and describes life in Armenia at the end of the 19th century. In 1906, he was elected to serve as a member of the British Parliament. (He died in London on 1913 11 24).
- 1877 The Yerevan detachment of the Russian forces, headed by General Ter-Ghukasov, occupies Bayazet for 12 days with the help of Armenian home guards.
- 1933 Death of Avetik Sahakian (Father Abraham), the Parliamentary President of the First Armenian Republic.
- 1953 The administrative districts of Yerevan, Kirovakan, and Leninakan are dissolved.
- 1958 Inauguration of the Armenian SSR's Art Institute.
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