THE ACTIVISTS REACH THE FINISH LINE
Kima Yeghyazaryan

Hayots Ashkhar Daily
Published on Aug 02, 2008
Armenia

The activists of the Ter-Petrosyan-led movement yesterday began their
demonstration with a disgraceful incident.

One of the people standing on the platform of the Matenadaran
had the naivety to make a half-hearted response to the
revolutionaries’ ultimatum-like demands and was fiercely attacked
by the activists. After listening to the short speech of the chief
demonstrator, the middle-aged man standing not far from the microphone
said, "Well, why do you make demands? Just ask!"

This was enough for the furious activists to "lynch" the man (who,
as we managed to find out, was one of the relatives of the victims
of the March 1-2 incidents). In front of the leaders of the movement,
the activists attacked the man, struck him on the head with force and
then pulled him about and tried to remove him from the platform. The
infuriated crowd which was ready to tear the aliens to shreds "met" the
stranger with whistles, shouts and curses and immediately attacked him.

Having received a scalp injury in the upper part of his head, the
latter hardly managed to have a narrow escape from the territory. The
revolutionaries immediately began circulating rumors that the person
who objected to the demonstrators was a ‘cop’.

So, "it serves him ri ght; they should have beaten him more." This is
how the mob responded to the barbaric act. And the incident showed once
again how peaceful LTP’s demonstrators were. We have eye-witnessed
such a hideous scene on the opposite side of the building of the
Mayor’s Office on March 1.

Not concealing their hatred for the cops, the revolutionary activists
settled scores with another alleged cop yesterday.

After all this, the revolutionary leaders still dare to insist that
those who attacked the policemen on March 1 were not the members of
their armed gang.

However, the most noteworthy fact is that the revolutionary orators
did not stop their speeches while torturing the man. Neither Arshak
Banouchyan, the so-called political prisoner considering himself an
intellectual (who, at a distance of a few meters, could hear and see
what was happening) nor Gourguen Yeghyazaryan the other "political
prisoner", took a second’s interval while uttering their speeches
full of threat against the authorities.

As to Hrant Bagratyan, he was following the heroic deeds of the
hot-headed activists with one eye and reading his speech with the
other, representing various figures in such a manner as though he was
pronouncing a tongue twister, in an attempt to prove that the country’s
economic growth was fictitious since the indexes were not indicated by
other countries. To substantiate his allegations, the specialist of
"m ale cows" tried to make a picturesque comparison like this, "Just
imagine a beauty contest in which there’s no jury making a decision,
and each participant declares herself as the most beautiful woman."

And at the end of his speech, Mr. Bagratyan gladdened the activists
by announcing that, "We should send these authorities to their graves."

Let’s note that the leader of "Heritage" did not appear on the
"platform" this time either. There was absolutely no representative
of the party participating in the demonstration which, as promised
before, was going to be crucial.

Leader of "Republic" party Aram Sargsyan assured the participants that
he would always stand by LTP and "comply with all the instructions
that he will give".

As to Stepan Demirtchyan, leader of the People’s Party of Armenia,
he managed to change his shirt twice during the demonstration,
not standing the hot weather and while making his short speech,
repeated the same 5-6 sentences which the people have been hearing
for 5-6 years.

The chief Marxist who had quit the movement through some
misunderstanding and regretted for his step hurried to the
platform. And despite the fact that David Haroutyunyan was not entitled
to make a speech, he managed, after the declaration of the Armenian
National Congress, to grab the microphone for a couple of seconds
and pronounce a welcoming sp eech.

It was extremely boring to listen to Ter-Petrosyan whose speech lasted
50 minutes. Suffering from a lack of a topic for conversation, the
speaker this time decided to touch upon "the activities of the main
state institutions". And he thoroughly estimated and characterized
the activities of the legislative and executive bodies.

At the end, the leader declared the "motto" of the movement, i.e. the
resignation of the country’s president and extraordinary presidential
and parliamentary elections.

By the way, it is worth mentioning that the meeting began with the
anthem of the movement (author of the text: Nikol Pashinyan), a musical
masterpiece composed in the genre of rock. This was followed by the
revolutionary melody "Lead the Struggle Till the End", its remix being
performed by LTP himself. Thus, the revolutionary "festival of music
and dance" is entering a new stage, turning into a specific kind of
rock-remix contest.

This, unfortunately, didn’t help the revolutionaries to record a
turning point on August 1.

Whereas, the aggressive vagabonds who, during the past 28 days,
had wasted away in the Northern Avenue, had great expectations and
participating in yesterday’s demonstration, they hoped it was going
to become a historic moment.

It wasn’t "historic", but history continues since the revolutionary
headquarters again invited the activists to the Northern Avenue for
5 weeks, promising them that the demonstration which is going to
be held on September 5 will be historic or at least mark a turning
point. Let’s wait and see what’s going to happen."