MANAGED TO AVOID CLASHES

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on March 22, 2008

Although the media supporting the Armenian Pan-National Movement
reported yesterday that they were going to organize a `protest march’
in memory of all the victims of the March 1 events, i.e. `a ceremony of
commemorating the victims’ etc., yesterday at 17:00 p.m. there began an
unlawful march from near the Opera, or rather, from the side of
Tumanyan Street and the front part of the Northern Avenue.

As to what extent it was a mourning ceremony or a mourning march, it is
possible to form an idea about it considering the fact that we saw no
photo or at least a copy of the photo of the dead.

Instead, there were a lot of pieces of papers bearing the colored
images of those who were detained for different offences. Smbat
Ayvazyan’s picture was one of them.

Anyway, there were also people who mourned sincerely, and we do respect
their feelings. This, however, did not change the unlawful march into a
lawful one.

Among the protesters there were also provokers who were trying to
instigate a clash by insulting and cursing the police officers and the
servicemen of the police forces. In response to the patience and
restraint of the latter, the provokers did not reach their goal.

Walking along the Northern Avenue, the Republican Square and Vazgen
Sargsyan Street, the participants of the unlawful march reached the
Statue of Myasnikyan (the opposite side of the Mayor’s Office), the
place where the well-known events started on March 1.

However, instead of spreading apart, going to their places and minding
their own business, some protesters who didn’t seem satisfied with all
that moved towards the Opera building along Grigor Lusavorich and
Mashtots Avenues, creating a traffic jam particularly at the
intersection of Mashtots Avenue and Amiryan Street.

At around 18:00 p.m., the police officers and the servicemen of the
police forces stopped the participants of the march near the Margaryan
maternity hospital. Before that they had warned several times through
the microphone of the police car that the march was illegal and
demanded the protesters to stop and spread apart.

However, some of the participants of the march tried to disobey the
police order. All this was about to mature into a clash which, however,
didn’t occur due to the resoluteness of the police as well as the
reasonableness of the overwhelming majority of the participants of the
march.

What happened obliges us once again to refrain from unlawful steps.