The Armenian youth in Argentina held a demonstration during the afternoon of Friday 3 March in front of the Azerbaijani embassy on the 29th anniversary of the Armenian pogroms in the Azerbaijani cities of Sumgait, Baku and Kirovabad, Prensa Armenia reported.
“The authoritarian regime of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev spends millions of petrodollars on events and publicity to wash away the image of his corrupt government while keeping the civilian population in extreme poverty and harassing and persecuting journalism and opposition,” said Brenda Kechiyan, member of Armenian Youth Federation of South America in her speech.
A large number of members of the Armenian community came to support the demonstration, with a strong presence of Homenetmen scouts.
“As opposed to a dictatorial regime that oppresses its population, which censures the press and systematically denies the Armenian Genocide along with Turkey, is the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh, which in September 2016 celebrated 25 years of independence, democracy, of elected governments at the polls that work day by day to improve the quality of life of their people,” added Kechiyan, who then asked for the freedom of Russian-Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin.
“This is why today we call the international community, but above all the Argentine authorities, to recognize the self-determination of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh as a free and independent State, and to condemn denialism in all its forms.”