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Armenians Demonstrate Against Moscow Killings

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  • Armenians Demonstrate Against Moscow Killings

    ARMENIANS DEMONSTRATE AGAINST MOSCOW KILLINGS

    Agence France Presse -- English
    June 5, 2006 Monday 2:22 PM GMT

    Around 100 people demonstrated outside the Russian embassy to Armenia
    on Monday demanding an end to a string of racist killings in Moscow
    of people of Armenian origin.

    Activists at the demonstration led by the Armenian Helsinki Committee
    waved placards marked "Stop fascism" and handed over a message for
    the Russian ambassador saying that racist groups were acting "under
    the protection of Russian state structures".

    Six people of Armenian origin have been killed in racially motivated
    attacks in Moscow this year, the activists said.

    "There is an ideological vacuum in Russia at the moment due to the
    failure of democratic principles and values," said the Helsinki
    Committee's chairman, Avetik Ishkhanian. "Several forces are trying
    to fill this vacuum with nationalist ideology and they need to be
    stopped".

    This Caucasus country has had close ties with Russia since the Soviet
    Union's 1991 collapse but they have been strained in recent months,
    partly due to attacks on Armenians in Russia.

    In the latest such attack a 19-year-old was stabbed to death on a train
    on May 25 by a group of young people who shouted "Glory to Russia",
    a lawyer representing members of the Armenian community said.

    Another activist, Arsen Kharatian, said it was time to re-evalute
    the commonly held belief that Russians could do no wrong.

    "It's necessary to free ourselves of the stereotype of the Russian
    who one can't speak out against ... Both Russia and Armenia should
    fight at state level against racism," he said.

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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