Several thousands attend Beslan remembrance ceremony in Yerevan
By Tigran Liloyan

ITAR-TASS News Agency
September 10, 2004 Friday

YEREVAN, September 10 – Several thousands of people attended a
remembrance ceremony for victims of the Beslan terrorist act in the
St. Grigory the Educator Cathedral in Yerevan on Friday.

Public organizations and the Russian-Armenian (Slavic) State University
organized the ceremony with the assistance of the Armenian Apostolic
Church and the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

Head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II prayed
for the Beslan dead. He presented condolences to Russian President
Vladimir Putin, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II and the
whole people of Russia on behalf of the people of Armenia.

“The Armenian people, whole Armenia are shaken by the monstrous crime,”
Parliament Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan said. “International terrorism
is acquiring a new, even more intricate face, and we must unite to
combat this evil,” he said.

Russian Ambassador to Armenia Anatoly Dryukov thanked every citizen
of Armenia for compassion and support. “Sorrow and ordeals have united
us again,” he said.

After the ceremony, people marched to the Russian embassy building
to light candles in the memory of Beslan victims.