"INDEPENDENCE DAY IS THE DAY OF OUR HOMELESSNESS"

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[09:40 pm] 21 September, 2007

At 6 p.m., September 21, residents of the "alienated zone" (Buzand,
Ekmalyan, Pushkin, North and Main Avenues) gathered at President
Robert Kocharian’s residence. They urged the president to restore
their rights.

Over twenty policemen tried to keep order driving them away. "No
matter how hard you try, the president will not appear."

Meanwhile, the president was busy with official reception on the
occasion of the Independence Day. The officials leaving the residence
cast indifferent looks at the demonstrators.

"The Independence Day is a day of our homelessness. It is already a
few years we are homeless, I don’t want to live in this country any
more," said Ms. Anahit, a resident of Buzand Street.

Raffi Hovannisian, the leader of the Heritage party went up to the
presentees and congratulated them on the holiday. "First of all,
it must be a holiday for the people, " he said. "We cannot have free
and independent country unless people feel free."

Heritage members Anahit Bakhshyan and Stepan Safaryan called on the
presentees to present their demands in a letter so that they could
be able to raise their problems in the National Assembly.

On seeing that the demonstrators have no intention to disperse, the
policemen began pushing and threatening them. "This is our country and
it is within our rights to stand wherever we want," the residents said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress