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Agence France Presse
October 10, 2014 Friday 5:01 PM GMT
Over 10,000 Armenians rally against poverty, graft
YEREVAN, Oct 10 2014
Over 10,000 opposition supporters rallied on Friday in the Armenian
capital demanding a change in government and accusing the present
rulers of failing to stem poverty and corruption in the landlocked
country.
"The time has come to get rid of our criminal and corrupt government,"
Armenia's former president and leader of the opposition Armenian
National Congress party, Levon Ter-Petrosian, told the rally.
"We need snap parliamentary and presidential polls."
Large crowds filled Yerevan's central Freedom Square at the call of
three main opposition parties, Prosperous Armenia, Heritage, and the
Armenian National Congress, to protest against rising prices and
widespread corruption.
Demanding President Serzh Sarkisian's resignation, protesters chanted
"Serzh go!"
"Our authorities had enough time to improve living standards in
Armenia, but have so far failed," 34-year-old protester, Anna Saroyan,
told AFP. "Now they must go."
Friday's rally coincided with the signature of a landmark agreement
that saw Armenia joining a Russian-led economic bloc -- the Eurasian
Economic Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan -- and turning its
back on closer ties with the European Union.
Sarkisian inked the agreement at a meeting of heads of state in the
Belarusian capital Minsk.
An impoverished country of 3.2 million, Armenia was badly affected by
the global downturn.
The former Soviet state is economically isolated with its borders to
Turkey and Azerbaijan both blocked due to ongoing international
disputes.
October 10, 2014 Friday 5:01 PM GMT
Over 10,000 Armenians rally against poverty, graft
YEREVAN, Oct 10 2014
Over 10,000 opposition supporters rallied on Friday in the Armenian
capital demanding a change in government and accusing the present
rulers of failing to stem poverty and corruption in the landlocked
country.
"The time has come to get rid of our criminal and corrupt government,"
Armenia's former president and leader of the opposition Armenian
National Congress party, Levon Ter-Petrosian, told the rally.
"We need snap parliamentary and presidential polls."
Large crowds filled Yerevan's central Freedom Square at the call of
three main opposition parties, Prosperous Armenia, Heritage, and the
Armenian National Congress, to protest against rising prices and
widespread corruption.
Demanding President Serzh Sarkisian's resignation, protesters chanted
"Serzh go!"
"Our authorities had enough time to improve living standards in
Armenia, but have so far failed," 34-year-old protester, Anna Saroyan,
told AFP. "Now they must go."
Friday's rally coincided with the signature of a landmark agreement
that saw Armenia joining a Russian-led economic bloc -- the Eurasian
Economic Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan -- and turning its
back on closer ties with the European Union.
Sarkisian inked the agreement at a meeting of heads of state in the
Belarusian capital Minsk.
An impoverished country of 3.2 million, Armenia was badly affected by
the global downturn.
The former Soviet state is economically isolated with its borders to
Turkey and Azerbaijan both blocked due to ongoing international
disputes.