RALLY IN ARMENIAN REGION DEMANDS RELEASE OF JAILED MP
Haykakan Zhamanak
March 25, 2008
Armenia
"A rally in Hrazdan"
A group of residents of Hrazdan [Armenia’s Kotayk region] staged a
rally yesterday near the village of Atarbekyan and demanded that MP
Sasun Mikaelyan [who was arrested after the 1 March events on charges
of illegal possession of weapons and actions aimed at seizing power]
be released.
Of course, the police tried to disperse the rally, intimidated people,
threatened to take them to the police station and assaulted two people.
But the residents of Hrazdan were quite resolute. They announced
that they will hold rallies every day. "The whole village and region
is on Sasun Mikaelyan’s side," they said, announcing that they
will not reconcile themselves to lawlessness, will stand like one
single person and apply to various organizations. "We want justice,
we want freedom. We will gather everyone, we will go to Yerevan,
we will march to Yerevan on foot," the residents of Hrazdan said.
In the evening, the police brought several rally participants to see
police chiefs and tried to find out who had organized the rally.
This, however, did not affect the protesters near the village of
Atarbekyan. "The rally has no organizers. People themselves came here
and will come here tomorrow and every day," some of the participants
in yesterday’s rally said with the same resolve.