PROTESTING WAR VETS FACE MORE POLICE PRESSURE
A group of former war veterans on a three-day hunger strike over Karabakh reported more police intervention on Friday, saying that law-enforcers have banned them from proceeding with their protest at a military cemetery in Yerevan. About a dozen former combatants in the 1991-1994 war in Nagorno-Karabakh gathered at Yerablur on Wednesday for a hunger strike that they said was a warning to the Armenian government to abstain from striking any deal with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh implying an Armenian military withdrawal from the districts surrounding the unrecognized republic. They further demanded that Armenia’s authorities should formally recognize Nagorno-Karabakh as its integral part and also release the ‘political prisoners’ jailed in the wake of the post-election clashes, among whom are also several veterans of the Karabakh war. About five of the protesters were forced to suspend their strike on Wednesday night. They, however, managed to regroup to continue the action the following day. A representative of Armenia’s ombudsman visited the site later during that day and after talking to police officials assured the citizens that they were fully entitled to continue the protest without changing the venue. Vartan Malkhasian, a former field commander from Armenia’s northern province of Tavush, told RFE/RL that police again interfered at about 11 pm Thursday on the ground of complaints received from residents living close by and eventually forced them to stop the protest. Police did not allow the protesters to resume their action at Yerablur in the morning either. As of Friday afternoon, the entrance to the cemetery remained blocked by at least three police vehicles and about a dozen police workers on duty. Police lieutenant-colonel Gagik Amirjanian, who is a senior representative at the district police, accused the veterans of sleeping inside a nearby church and littering the area. He added that no protest actions were allowed to be staged at Yerablur. The veterans, however, said they were convinced that the police have been acting on orders from the political authorities. Workers of the United States embassy in Yerevan visited the hunger-strikers on Friday afternoon. They reportedly talked to both the protesters and the police controlling their area. Since 1988, Yerablur, located on a hilltop in the outskirts of Yerevan, has been the resting place for soldiers who lost their lives during the Karabakh war. Police major-general Ara Zakarian, who is in charge of the department that provides police protection to more than 4,000 state buildings, religious and cultural centers and private apartments throughout Armenia, confirmed to RFE/RL that Yerablur is not on the list of facilities where police protection is required. Earlier, speaking to RFE/RL, Mikael Danielian, the head of the Armenian Helsinki Association, said the police demands in the case were ‘illegal’. Meanwhile, the veterans intend to end their hunger strike as planned on Saturday afternoon. It is not yet clear whether they plan any further public protests in the future.
- By Ruben Meloyan
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1
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By Astghik Bedevian
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By Astghik BedevianArmenia’s Court of Cassation on Friday ordered a conditional release of an opposition supporter convicted by court on a weapons possession charge from further serving out his jail sentence. The supreme ...PROTESTING WAR VETS FACE MORE POLICE PRESSURE
By Ruben MeloyanA group of former war veterans on a three-day hunger strike over Karabakh reported more police intervention on Friday, saying that law-enforcers have banned them from proceeding with their protest at ...
WAR VETS ON HUNGER STRIKE OPPOSING ‘TERRITORIAL CONCESSIONS’
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By Astghik BedevianPROSECUTOR SEEKS FOREIGN EXPERTISE IN ARMENIAN UNREST PROBE
By Karine KalantarianOPPOSITION DEFENDS SKIPPING SARKISIAN-HOSTED ‘KARABAKH CONSULTATIONS’
By Anush MartirosianARMENIA CHESS WIN SPARKS NATIONWIDE ELATION
By Tatevik Lazarian, and Harry Tamrazian in PragueAZERBAIJAN REFUSES TO EXCLUDE MILITARY SOLUTION FOR KARABAKH
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(dpa)
- 1918 Death of Gegham Ter Karapetian, a literary figure in the provinces of the Ottoman Empire. He was a revolutionary figure and the representative for Moosh (Western Armenia) in the Ottoman Parliament.
- 1967 Solemn inauguration in Yerevan of the Genocide Monument. It is dedicated to the memory of the one million victims of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Turks - starting in 1915.
- 1974 The "Russia" movie theatre is opened in Yerevan.
- 1989 The USSR Supreme Soviet liquidates its Volsky Committee in Artsakh.
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