ARF-D WON’T COMMIT SUICIDE, THEY’RE ONLY PROTESTING
Tert.am
Sept 16 2009
Armenia
The broad range of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D) Party’s protests are quite impressive.
The latest developments of Armenian-Turkish relations, more precisely
the "improvements", include a large number of activists protesting
before the Government of the Republic of Armenia building, where
an unprecedented sit-in has been taking place. Participants in the
sit-in protect themselves from the sun with Aravot, the Armenian Times
("Haykakan Zhamanak") and Yerevan Time ("Jamanak Yerevan") daily
papers. Along with the protest, activists are collecting signatures.
The young person responsible for collecting signatures could hardly
explain its meaning and aims. In answer to Tert.am’s question if
ARF-D members were present there, or, even, Supreme body member Armen
Rostomian, he said "I don’t know …"
The number of protesters doesn’t exceed a hundred, in which case,
according to the Republic of Armenia Constitution, the protestors are
entitled to organize their protest wherever they wish, explained one
of the protestors.
Unlike other political protests over the past two years, the number
of law enforcers here is not large. Only a few police officers are
responsible for keeping the peace and maintaining order.
There is also a display stand presenting the situation that has
impelled ARF-D representatives to take this measure. The stand presents
corrections made by ARF-D in the "Protocols pre-signed on August 31
between the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Turkey."
One can see the same stand before the Republic of Armenia Foreign
Ministry building. Here the protest is more serious. The protestors
are on a hunger strike. It’s true, according to participants, the
strikers take turns, substituting each other every three days. "We
are not going to commit a suicide, it’s a protest action."
Here, signatures are also collected. By the way, one can sign the
petition "without any preconditions"; that is, without a passport or
any other form of ID. Along with your signature, only your first name,
surname, patronymic, and home address are required. Most probably,
those collecting signatures are able to remember faces, in order to
prevent someone from signing twice.
If we cross the street and move to the part where Lenin’s monument
once stood (on the 1700th anniversary of adoption of Christianity, a
huge luminous cross was standing in the same place), we will be able
to see two women in charge of several display stands. The themes of
the photos and images shown on the stands are diverse: raging from
horrible pictures of the Armenian Genocide to scenes encouraging
violation of the Turkish flag. Heroes of the Nagorno-Karabakh war
are also pictured here.
It is not in vain that the word "improvement" mentioned above is
accompanied by a copyright symbol. According to the ARF-D, the word
"development" must be replaced with the word "improvement." That is
to say, there have not been any relations, to "develop"…
One more point, which probably is the most important for the ARF-D
in their persistent and fixed struggle. In point 5 of the Protocols,
according to them, the words "science and education" must be replaced
with "science, education and culture."
They explain it this way: "We think that this sub-commission must
not only deal with the spheres of science and education, but also
with cultural values and the fate of historical monuments."
To conclude, we would like to mention that ARF-D is not against and has
never been against normalization of Armenian-Turkish relations. They
only note, "Turkish people owe us."