DASHNAKS TO DEFY BAN ON NEXT YEREVAN RALLY
Ruzanna Stepanian

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14.10.2009

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) said
on Wednesday that it will defy a government ban and again rally
supporters in Yerevan this week in protest against the controversial
Turkish-Armenian agreements.

In accordance with Armenia’s law on public gatherings, Dashnaktsutyun
notified the municipal authorities last week about its intention
to hold the rally in Charles Aznavour square in downtown Yerevan on
Friday. The municipality said on Tuesday that it can not be authorized
because another even has already been scheduled to take place in the
same place and on the same day.

Vahan Hovannisian, a Dashnaktsutyun leader, rejected the explanation
and said the authorities failed to offer an alternative venue for
the protest, as is required by the law. "They only verbally informed
us that some other, children’s event is to take place there at the
same time," he said. "And when we said that we can hold it elsewhere,
they said, ‘We will organize an event there too.’"

Hovannisian claimed that the authorities are thus keen to prevent
the Dashnaktsutyun rally at any cost. "We cannot reckon with such a
desire," he told a news conference.

Thousands of people, most of them Dashnaktsutyun supporters, marched
through the city center last Friday to condemn the two Turkish-Armenian
protocols that were signed the next day. Dashnaktsutyun and its
influential chapter in Armenian communities around the world have
rejected the deal as a sellout. They are particularly opposed to its
provisions that commit Armenia to recognizing its existing border
with Turkey and agreeing to a joint study of the 1915 mass killings
of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

Hovannisian also criticized Sarkisian for accepting Turkish President
Abdullah Gul’s invitation to visit Turkey for Wednesday’s soccer game
between the two countries’ national teams. He said the Turkish side
has failed to meet Sarkisian’s earlier conditions for the trip.

The Armenian president said throughout this summer that he will accept
travel to Turkey if Ankara lifts its 16-year economic blockade of
Armenia or is at least "on the verge" of doing that.

The Dashnaktsutyun leader insisted that the reopening of the
Turkish-Armenian border, envisaged by one of the signed protocols,
is still not on the cards, citing statements to that effect made by
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish leaders.

"If [the Armenian authorities] are ready to make other concessions
to make border opening imminent and inevitable, then this is the
subject of a separate conversation," said Hovannisian. "But I think
the conditions set by the president were not satisfied."