Silent Protest in Yerevan
Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008
Yesterday saw a silent protest staged in Yerevan to mark the end of the state of emergency declared on 1 March when seven civilians and one policeman died during clashes between supporters of former president, Levon Ter-Petrossian, and security forces. Announced on the Internet, people were called on to gather at various points from Liberty Square to near the French Embassy and stand silently.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get down to Liberty Square until 6.30 — an hour and a half after the demonstration started — so saw nothing apart from riot police preventing people from entering Liberty Square and guard key points en route. A few people could be seen walking to and fro with lighted candles and pictures of prominent opposition members currently under arrest. It’s therefore hard for me to say how many people took part.
The BBC, however, put the number at “more than 1,000″ while Lragir reported “several hundred” and RFE/RL said “about 2,000.” E-Channel also said a “few thousand.”
The full post accompanied by photographs is on the Armenia Election Monitor 2008.
