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GYUMRI PROTEST CANCELED: RADICAL OPPOSITION GROUP CLAIMS AUTHORITIES PLANNED "PROVOCATIONS"
NEWS | 09.03.15 | 10:38
Activists of a radical opposition movement seeking regime change
in Armenia promise to travel to Gyumri again for a rally in the
coming days after they had to cut their trip to the city short amid
security fears.
Zhirayr Sefilyan, leader of the Founding Parliament, told media on
Saturday that they possessed information that the authorities had
planned provocations against them and therefore they decided to return
to Yerevan after reaching the outskirts of Gyumri.
Dozens of Founding Parliament activists, including Sefilian, were
confronted by police and angry plainclothes men on a similar campaign
trip to Nagorno-Karabakh on January 31. The group then had to turn
back and return to Yerevan after suffering a violent attack condemned
by many opposition and civic groups.
Sefilyan said they would not "swallow the bait" and allow provocations
to be later blamed on Founding Parliament activists.
"The mere fact that the regime had put in place a police cordon
around the Russian consulate building before our arrival is enough
for us not to enter the city, because it is their desire to present
Founding Parliament as a force serving certain geopolitical interests
and to show our being anti-Russian," he said, as quoted by RFE/RL's
Armenian Service.
Residents of Gyumri already staged protests near the Russian consulate
in January demanding that a soldier of the local Russian military base
charged with killing a seven-member Armenian family be handed over to
Armenian authorities. Ten activists were charged with disturbing public
order, hooliganism and assaulting police in the wake of those protests.
Founding Parliament activists say their trips to major cities and
towns in Armenia are part of a campaign to raise awareness ahead of
their planned protest in Yerevan on April 24. On the day when the
main events marking the centennial of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman
Turkey are due to take place in the Armenian capital, members of the
hard-line opposition movement plan to launch a decisive anti-government
push. Many Armenians believe this is a wrong timing for a political
protest, but Founding Parliament leaders do not conceal that it is
their deliberate choice. They say during their campaign trips they
want to explain to people why they have chosen this date and what
they are going to do on that day.
http://armenianow.com/news/61238/armenia_founding_parliament_protest_gyumri_cancele d
NEWS | 09.03.15 | 10:38
Activists of a radical opposition movement seeking regime change
in Armenia promise to travel to Gyumri again for a rally in the
coming days after they had to cut their trip to the city short amid
security fears.
Zhirayr Sefilyan, leader of the Founding Parliament, told media on
Saturday that they possessed information that the authorities had
planned provocations against them and therefore they decided to return
to Yerevan after reaching the outskirts of Gyumri.
Dozens of Founding Parliament activists, including Sefilian, were
confronted by police and angry plainclothes men on a similar campaign
trip to Nagorno-Karabakh on January 31. The group then had to turn
back and return to Yerevan after suffering a violent attack condemned
by many opposition and civic groups.
Sefilyan said they would not "swallow the bait" and allow provocations
to be later blamed on Founding Parliament activists.
"The mere fact that the regime had put in place a police cordon
around the Russian consulate building before our arrival is enough
for us not to enter the city, because it is their desire to present
Founding Parliament as a force serving certain geopolitical interests
and to show our being anti-Russian," he said, as quoted by RFE/RL's
Armenian Service.
Residents of Gyumri already staged protests near the Russian consulate
in January demanding that a soldier of the local Russian military base
charged with killing a seven-member Armenian family be handed over to
Armenian authorities. Ten activists were charged with disturbing public
order, hooliganism and assaulting police in the wake of those protests.
Founding Parliament activists say their trips to major cities and
towns in Armenia are part of a campaign to raise awareness ahead of
their planned protest in Yerevan on April 24. On the day when the
main events marking the centennial of the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman
Turkey are due to take place in the Armenian capital, members of the
hard-line opposition movement plan to launch a decisive anti-government
push. Many Armenians believe this is a wrong timing for a political
protest, but Founding Parliament leaders do not conceal that it is
their deliberate choice. They say during their campaign trips they
want to explain to people why they have chosen this date and what
they are going to do on that day.
http://armenianow.com/news/61238/armenia_founding_parliament_protest_gyumri_cancele d