Published since 07.2002
Published on July 04, 2008
ON THE MOVE: TER-PETROSYAN-LED OPPOSITION ANNOUNCES LENGTHY SIT-IN BEFORE ITS NEXT RALLY
- Armenia’s opposition on Friday signaled the start of a 28-day sit-in of about 50 of its supporters in Northern Avenue as a heavy cordon of police and water cannons was raised to surround the nearby Opera Square. As the opposition again rallied thousands of its supporters in the area adjacent to the ancient manuscripts depository, Matenadaran, police was on standby down Mashtots Avenue sealing off the area of Liberty Square, the scene of 10-day nonstop opposition protests following the disputed February 19 presidential election that were broken up in a predawn action by security forces on the first day of spring. The rally again had not been authorized by the city’s authorities and proceeded according to the scenario of the previous one as police eventually allowed opposition supporters to start their action near Matenadaran. An estimated 10,000 people who had turned out for the rally met first president and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan with rapturous applause and waited for about three hours to hear him deliver his speech. Ter-Petrosyan’s top aide Levon Zurabyan said the four-week sin-in action would end on August 1 in time for the opposition’s next scheduled rally. “During these 28 days we will prepare for the rally on August 1, which will be unprecedented and decisive in our struggle. We have no right to go home as long as our friends are in jails,” Zurabyan said. He emphasized that the struggle of the movement would not cease because of summer heat but would continue since “it is at least ignorance to link one’s struggle with weather.” Many of the speakers pointed out the recent resolution passed by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on Azerbaijan in which Armenia was urged to immediately withdraw troops from “Azerbaijan’s territory” and which linked Azerbaijan’s democracy with territorial integrity, as well as the recent statements made by President Serzh Sargsyan in Moscow. “Because of an untalented policy, the issue of the right of nations to self-determination was turned into a territorial dispute and today Serzh Sargsyan is bringing forward the issue of setting up “a commission to study the fact of genocide” with Turks thereby questioning the very fact of the genocide, and in Baku, the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia signed a document in which they consider an alteration of the country’s borders unacceptable. That is, our strategic ally signs an agreement with our enemies by which Nagorno-Karabakh, in fact, remains within Azerbaijan,” deputy chairman of the opposition People’s Party of Armenia Grigor Harutyunyan said. The first president’s speech focused on the evaluation of the years of Robert Kocharyan’s presidency as he called the end of Kocharyan’s tenure “a significant historical reality.” Ter-Petrosyan said that Kocharyan became president “with an illegal certificate and by means of unlawful elections, destroyed the independence of the legislative and judicial authorities and free speech, instituted control over all electronic media, made corruption and racketeering a form of politics. Also, according to Ter-Petrosyan, Kocharyan “lost several good opportunities for a favorable solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh problem”, “handed Armenia’s energy system over to Russia” and “ended his ‘magnificent’ reign with a bloodshed.” Ter-Petrosyan stressed that he would take serious steps before August 1 to translate into reality the idea of establishing the Armenian National Congress, an umbrella structure that would unite more than two dozen political parties and organizations that have been supporting him before and after the elections. The first president repeated the basic ‘tough conditions’ to the authorities: “to release political prisoners immediately, punish all those responsible for the March 1 events – and first of all Robert Kocharyan”. But he also added new ones to the list according to which he demanded “an immediate dismissal of discredited Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan, chief of presidential staff Hovik Abrahamyan, Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepyan, Head of the National Security Service Gorik Hakobyan, Public Television and Radio Company Chairman Alexan Harutyunyan”. The opposition leader warned that unless all these conditions were met, the next rally would demand “the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan and a new presidential election.” The rally was followed by a march through central streets of Yerevan with its participants chanting Levon! Levon! and singing songs about their leader. Police had been deployed to guard major government offices near the capital’s main Republic Square in anticipation of the opposition’s procession. Also, ArmeniaNow could confirm that public transportation towards Yerevan from at least two towns, Etchmiadzin and Abovyan, was mostly unavailable in afternoon hours raising speculations about plans to prevent opposition supporters in provinces from arriving in the capital in time for the rally. The Friday rally and march took place only days after an ugly incident in Northern Avenue, a scene of daily “political walks” of the opposition, as a fistfight broke out between Ter-Petrosyan supporters and a group of whom many eyewitnesses described as ‘well-built’ men. Several people on the opposition side reportedly sustained injuries as a result of the brawl. The opposition later accused the authorities of orchestrating the attack on its peaceful protesters in an attempt to scare people off from turning out for the planned rally and claimed that some of the assailants were bodyguards of two district mayors of Yerevan. The authorities shrugged off the accusations and pointed the finger at the opposition as the organizer of what they called a provocation.
- Gayane Abrahamyan
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Gayane AbrahamyanArmenia’s opposition on Friday signaled the start of a 28-day sit-in of about 50 of its supporters in Northern Avenue as a heavy cordon of police and water cannons was raised to surround the nearby Opera ...
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Today in Armenian history- 1762 The first publication of Yeznik Koghbatsi's "Yeghts Aghandots" by the Markos Publishing House, in Smyrna.
- 1818 The inhabitants of Zeytoon (Western Armenia) rebel against the exactions of the Pasha of Marash.
- 1823 Birth of Grigor Aghatonyan in Constantinople. He died in 1868.
- 1839 Death of Papa Hambardzoomian, composer and author of Armenian phonographs.
- 1847 Death of Hakob Chelepi Tyoozian, the imperial goldsmith. The "Europe" periodical was published by his initiative. He was born on 1793 01 03.
- 1902 International Meeting of Patriots takes place in Brussels. French public-political figure Jean Jaures (amongst others) devotes his speech to the Armenian Cause.
- 1902 An International Conference on the Armenian Question takes place in Brussels.
- 1908 Death of Armenian writer Missak Metsarents. He was born in 1886.
- 1930 Birth of Mher Mkrtchyan (actor). He died in 1993.
- 1992 Artsakh forces leave Martakert (Artsakh).
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