Armenians Rally After State of Emergency Ends

The Associated Press
March 24, 2008.

Mkhitar Khachatryan / AP

YEREVAN, Armenia — Several hundred opposition supporters held
demonstrations across Yerevan on Friday after authorities lifted a
20-day state of emergency.

The rallies were against the March 1 arrests of dozens of opposition
activists following clashes between police and protesters in which
eight people were killed and dozens injured. A state of emergency
followed, banning public gatherings, which ended Thursday at midnight.

The latest demonstrators lit candles and held pictures of those
arrested on March 1. Police officers approached the protesters, who
formed a chain across downtown Yerevan, urging them to disperse but not
using force.

Several protesters yelled curses at the police, but there were no
clashes.

The violence on March 1 erupted after police forcibly dispersed
protesters claiming that the government rigged the Feb. 19 presidential
election and demanding a new vote.

The official results gave the favored candidate of outgoing President
Robert Kocharyan, Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, nearly 53 percent of
the vote, while opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan received about 21
percent. Sargsyan is set to be inaugurated April 9.

Sargsyan said Thursday that 106 of the scores of detained opposition
supporters remained under arrest, including some of Ter-Petrosyan’s
former allies.

"We are demanding that the authorities explain to us why these 106
people have been arrested," said one protester, Armen Martirosyan.

The opposition has capitalized on widespread public anger over endemic
poverty, despite recent economic growth. "We have nothing to eat," said
another protester, Alla Arutyunyan. "I’m wondering whether Sargsyan and
his family could survive on the money they give me."