ARMENIA MARKS 90-th ANNIVERSARY OF FIRST REPUBLIC

ARMENPRESS
May 28, 2008

YEREVAN, MAY 28, ARMENPRESS: Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian,
Nagorno-Karabakh President Bako Sahakian, Parliament Speaker
Tigran Torosian, Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian, Chairman of the
Constitutional Court Gagik Harutyunian, other top government officials,
foreign diplomats, Former President Robert Kocharian, clergy and
thousands of ordinary Armenians gathered today in Sardarapat, a
village 40 kilometers west of Yerevan, for ceremonies commemorating
the Republic Day, dedicated to Armenia’s first republic that emerged
90 years ago from the ashes of the Russian empire.

A military parade marched today saluting the country’s leadership
and war planes were flying overhead. The country’s leadership laid a
wreath at the 35-meter high monument erected in memory of Armenians
who were killed defending their country’s independence. Head of the
Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Karekin II, served a service
for repose of souls of the killed soldiers.

The country’s leadership and the guests then visited the Sardarapat
Ethnographic Museum and the National-Liberation Museum to see a new
exposition of documents and other materials about the first Armenian
republic.

President Serzh Sarkisian, who is also president of the Armenian
Chess Federation watched also a simultaneous game of grandmaster
Vladimir Hakobian with best chess players of Armavir province where
Sardarapat is.

Then a concert was performed for all.