Will Pashinyan change from revolution mode to Governing mode? He is back on protest mode again

August 17, 2018 By administrator

YEREVAN. – Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan called on the participants of today’s rally not to yield to provocations and to show restraint.

According to him, the procession will start from the crossroads of Artsakh and Erebuni streets at 17:40 and will move towards the Republic Square of Yerevan.

“The procession will start at the place where I was taken away by officers of the National Security Service and police on April 22, 2018. I am confident during today’s procession they will provide security, and some will even take part in it. This will be a manifestation of national solidarity. Today there are no dividing lines. The police, the National Security Service, society, the army, the Armed Forces, the state administration bodies, the government are all on the same side,” Pashinyan said.

He also asked the participants not to respond aggressively to any manifestation. According to the head of the government, there will be a lot of people at the rally, and each of them should show restraint.

“I do not exclude that there will be people who will be sent on purpose to stage provocations. I ask you not to respond in any way to their actions by aggression. If necessary, contact the police. Law enforcers will work in an enhanced mode today,” Pashinyan said.

Thousands march in L.A. to mark anniversary of Armenian genocide

April 24, 2018 By administrator

Photo Illustration by Wally Sarkeesian

Thousands of demonstrators marched Tuesday along Hollywood Boulevard and through the Fairfax neighborhood to mark the 103rd anniversary of the Armenian genocide.

Draped in red, blue and orange, the sea of demonstrators was led by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to demand that Turkey recognize the 1915 atrocities that led to the systematic killing of 1.2 million Armenians.

“You don’t have to be Armenian to know what a human tragedy looks like,” Garcetti told the crowd in Little Armenia. “This was an Armenian tragedy and a human tragedy, and all of us will say, ‘Never again.’ ”

Every year, protesters lift their voices with a mixed sense of grief and indignation, determined to bring attention to this dark time in Armenian history.

This year, there was a renewed sense of hope in the crowd.

Earlier this week in Armenia, a national protest led to the resignation of the country’s prime minister, a man who had remained in power for more than a decade.

With peaceful protests, road blockades, even late-night clanging of pots and pans, Armenians in the capital of Yerevan brought down Serzh Sargsyan.

Tuesday morning, many said they felt empowered by the events in their home country.

“We are proud and more united than ever — here and in Armenia and all over the world,” said Nune Yenokyan, 31, of Tujunga. “We won’t stop until these crimes are brought to justice.”

The first of two demonstration marches began near Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue in Little Armenia at 10 a.m., and was organized by Unified Young Armenians. In addition to carrying flags and signs denouncing the genocide, marchers also called on the United States government to officially recognize it.

After the rally in Little Armenia, participants marched on a circular route east on Hollywood Boulevard, south on Normandie Avenue, west on Sunset Boulevard then north on Hobart Boulevard. Los Angeles police closed all the affected streets from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The second rally, organized by the Armenian Genocide Committee, began around midday at Pan Pacific Park at 7600 Beverly Blvd., and was scheduled to end at the Turkish Consulate at 6300 Wilshire Blvd. The demonstration route skirted the Grove shopping center, then proceeded west on 3rd Street, south on Fairfax Avenue then west on Wilshire Boulevard.

LAPD officials said all streets affected by the march would be closed from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Although the genocide has been chronicled by historians, who often view it as having been a systematic campaign of ethnic cleansing, Turkey has denied it occurred, saying the deaths of Armenians were a function of the chaos of World War I, which also claimed Turkish lives.

More than 200,000 people of Armenian descent live in Los Angeles County, making the Southland home to the largest Armenian community outside of Armenia. Glendale Unified School District does not hold classes on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.

Despite calls by some legislators — most notably U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) — for the federal government to formally recognize the genocide, U.S. presidents have long refused to do so. President Trump last year continued that tradition in his first year in office, issuing a statement denouncing the deaths as “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th Century” but failing to use the term “genocide.”

Former President Obama, a Democrat, also failed to recognize the genocide during his eight years in office, despite indications during his original campaign that he would do so.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Armenia: Etchmiadzin residents march in protest

April 21, 2018 By administrator

Etchmiadzin residents march

VAGHARSHAPAT. – The residents of Vagharshapat (Etchmiadzin) town are protesting since early Saturday morning, and they have joined the “My Step” initiative against ex-President Serzh Sargsyan being elected Prime Minister of Armenia.

The Armenian News-NEWS.am reporter at the scene informed that the demonstrators are marching through the city streets, making calls, and urging others to join them.

A large number of police officers are overseeing the protest march in Vagharshapat.

As reported earlier, protesters are marching in various districts of capital city Yerevan, since early Saturday morning.

The march which is led by “My Step” initiative leader, opposition Civil Contract Party Political Council member, and National Assembly (NA) “Way Out” (Yelk) Faction head Nikol Pashinyan, had started at Nor Nork District.

The demonstrators are calling on people to join them.

Nikol Pashinyan and his supporters are staging protests in capital city Yerevan ever since April 13, and by marching, holding rallies, as well as blocking streets and squares. They protest against ex-President Serzh Sargsyan being elected Prime Minister of Armenia.

As a result of the clashes during these demonstrations, 46 people—including Pashinyan—were injured, and police detained several dozen people, including minors.

In addition, a criminal case has been filed into the protesters’ bursting into the Public Radio of Armenia building and regarding an incident that occurred at an intersection in downtown Yerevan.

Ex-President Serzh Sargsyan was elected Prime Minister at Tuesday’s NA special session, and by a vote of 77 for and 18 against.

Yerevan: A march for the liberation of the armed commando of Sasna Tsrer

July 18, 2017 By administrator

A march for the liberation of the armed commando of Sasna Tsrer A year later, the case of the taking of hostages in the heart of Yerevan is given in the news by a parade in the heart of the city while some members of the commando of 31 people pass in judgment.

Yerevan, 17 July 2017 – 11 pm – It was just a year ago, in the Erebuni district, on Kokhenatsi Street. Around 5:30 am, an armed commando storms a police station, which houses anti-riot control facilities. The time to shake off the torpor of a start of the day already too hot and the country was learning, flash tv after flash radio and via social networks, that the attack had made at least one victim in the ranks of the police – In fact, one at the time, Arthur Vanoyan, and another policeman who will die in early August as a result of his injuries. Very soon, the commando, composed of 31 armed men, declares and its name – the Sasna Tserer, allusion to the most famous of the Armenian epics – and its purpose. The first, obtain the release of Jiraïr Sefilian, leader of the opposition parliamentary founding group, imprisoned for a month because suspected of preparing actions likely to unbalance the regime in place. As for the second claim – the Sasna Tsrer simply demands that President Serge Sarksyan give up power.

They will not get either, and after very violent street demonstrations, which have caused dozens of wounded among simple demonstrators and many others among journalists, the commando will eventually surrender, on 31 July evening. On the spot, in the Sari Tagh district, which overlooks the police station from its narrow streets, tension has continued to rise throughout the hostage-taking process. At the height of the demonstrations in the city and in the police station itself, more than 20,000 people joined vigorously repressed parades – up to 136 arrests in only one of these Demonstrations – while there will be a third victim in the police.

Turkey’s Erdogan slams opposition as ‘justice march’ nears Istanbul

July 1, 2017 By administrator

Ankara (AFP) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused Turkey’s main opposition party of siding with terrorism, as a three-week “march for justice” led by its chief neared its ending point of Istanbul.

Some analysts have seen the 450-kilometre (280 miles) trek from Ankara to Istanbul led by Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu as a significant challenge to Erdogan but the Turkish strongman has regarded it with disdain.

Kilicdaroglu began the march on June 15 after former journalist turned CHP lawmaker Enis Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in jail for leaking classified information to a newspaper.

Marching without party insignia and simply a sign with the word “justice” in Turkish, he has been followed by thousands every day and plans to end the march on July 9 with a mass rally outside Berberoglu’s prison in the Istanbul district of Maltepe.

“If you start protests to protect terrorists and those who support terrorism — when it did not occur to you to take part in anti-terror demonstrations — then you cannot convince anyone that your objective is justice,” Erdogan said.

The president told a meeting of his ruling party that the line represented by the CHP “had gone beyond being a political opposition and taken on a different proportion.”

Accusing the CHP of sympathising with Kurdish militants and the alleged mastermind of the July 15 failed coup, he said the road taken by Kilicdaroglu was “the way to Qandil and Pennsylvania”.

The leadership of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) is based in the Qandil mountain of northern Iraq while the alleged coup mastermind, the preacher Fethullah Gulen, is based in Pennsylvania. He denies the allegations.

The march by Kilicdaroglu has rallied supporters concerned by the extent of the crackdown after the coup which has seen tens of thousands arrested and even more lose their jobs.

The opposition leader was Saturday walking through the Akyazi district of Sakarya province on day 17 of the march, heading towards the town of Sakarya from where he will have a walk of around 150 kilometres (90 miles) to Istanbul.

Turkey: opposition opens a long march for justice

June 19, 2017 By administrator

Turkey: opposition opens a long march for justice yThousands of people began in Ankara, on appeal from the main opposition group, a long march to Istanbul, a distance of 400 km, in protest at the incarceration of a member of the party .

Enis Berberoglu, of the People’s Republican Party (CHP), was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison for providing the opposition daily Cumhuriyet with confidential information.

This is the first time that a member of the CHP, a party founded by modern Turkey’s father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, has been imprisoned since the lifting of parliamentary immunity last year.

The CHP immediately objected to this decision, several members calling it “political”. The party leader, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, decided in protest to travel on foot the 400 km stretch that separates Ankara from Istanbul where the deputy is imprisoned. “If there is a price to pay, I will pay it first,” Kiliçdaroglu said. “I’m going to Istanbul. And we will continue our march until there is justice in Turkey. “He also called on all those who want to defend justice to support his approach.

Several thousand people walked with him from downtown Ankara, waving signs bearing the word “Justice”, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. “Do not stay silent. If you are silent, your turn will come, “they chanted, as well as” side by side against fascism. “

A gathering was also organized in Istanbul, where several hundred people gathered, chanting “we will win through the resistance,” said another journalist of the AFP.

Enis Berberoglu is accused of providing the opposition daily Cumhuriyet with a video claiming the interception of trucks belonging to the Turkish secret service (MIT) and carrying arms in Syria in January 2014 at the Syrian border.

The case had caused scandal and provoked the fury of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who promised Cumhuriyet editor of the time, Can Dündar, that he would “pay the price”.

Berberoglu, who was appearing on Wednesday, was imprisoned immediately after the verdict was announced by the court. The lawyer of the deputy has appealed this decision as early as Thursday morning, reported the private agency Dogan.

Monday, June 19, 2017,
Stéphane © armenews.com

Êzidîs start a march from Dusseldorf to Brussels for Shengal, protest the AKP/KDP gangs

March 20, 2017 By administrator

(ANF) Êzidîs living in Europe have started a march from Dusseldorf, Germany to the European Union’s capital Brussels in order to protest the AKP/KDP gangs’ attacks on Shengal.

Êzidî people came together in front of the North Rhine Westphalia State parliament in Dusseldorf, Germany at 11:00 this morning, chanting the slogans ‘Long Live Shengal Resistance’, ‘Long Live Leader Apo’ and ‘Death to betrayal’ before starting a march to Brussels in solidarity with the people of Shengal facing attacks by AKP/KDP gangs.

European Kurdish Democratic Societies Congress (KCDK-E) Co-president Yüksel Koç and representatives of many institutions participated in the event organized by the Shengal Êzidî Diaspora Assembly.

https://youtu.be/n6qQUMb2y3o

Shengal Êzidî Diaspora Assembly Co-president Fikret İgrek spoke on behalf of the crowd that unfurled a banner reading ‘Çeteyên KDP û AKP deste xwe ji axa Êzîdxan Bikşînîn’ (KDP and AKP gangs shall withdraw their hands from Êzîdxan).

İgrek demanded that the gang groups affiliated with the AKP and KDP retreat from the Khanasor immediately in order for the crisis not to deepen further, saying; “Êzidîs have been through 73 massacres so far and they are facing continued attacks. We therefore need to defend ourselves and demand that YBŞ and YJŞ be recognized as the defense forces of Shengal.”

İgrek said it was important that international powers send independent delegations to the region and form an international circle of security in order for the resolution of the crisis in Shengal and the protection of Êzidî people’s faith and culture. He said: “Our march begins in Dusseldorf, Germany, today and will continue until March 27 when it will end with a rally in the European Union’s capital Brussels.”

“DEFENDING SHENGAL IS DEFENDING HUMANITY”

KCDK-E Co-president Yüksel Koç congratulated all the protestors and put emphasis on the importance of the march. Koç said “This is a very important protest. Everyone should know that the people of Shengal are not alone; patriotic Kurds will defend Shengal everywhere they are. KDP is betraying and attacking the people of Shengal for the sake of the Turkish state. This is a betrayal against all the Kurdish people. KDP and Masoud Barzani should reverse their wrong decision and stop betraying the Kurdish people immediately. We strongly condemn these attacks and call upon our patriotic people to stand with the protest and its participants throughout the route of the march.”

Protestors began their march after the press statement and are handing out leaflets and chanting slogans exposing the attacks on Shengal. Participants will cover a total of 27 kilometers today and resume the march from Mönchengladbach tomorrow.

Thousands to commemorate Genocide in Times Square on April 23

February 16, 2017 By administrator

Thousands will gather in New York’s Times Square (43rd St./Broadway) to commemorate the 102nd anniversary commemoration of the Armenian Genocide On April 23. In recognition of Genocide Awareness Month in April, Holocaust Remembrance Day will also be commemorated, along with other genocides committed in contemporary history, The Armenian Weekly reports.

This powerful event, free and open to the public, will honor the 1.5 million Armenians who were massacred by the Young Turk Government of the Ottoman Empire and the millions of victims of genocide worldwide.

Speakers will include well-known artists, politicians, academics and humanitarians. The theme of this year’s commemoration is “Turkey is Guilty of Genocide: Denying the Undeniable is a Crime.”

Each year, the Genocide is commemorated in various corners of the world, where Diaspora Armenians and locals alike join to remember those martyred in the massacres.

Thousands March In Support Of Gunmen In Yerevan

July 25, 2016 By administrator

By RFE/RL’s Armenian Service

July 25, 2016

Thousands of demonstrators were marching in Yerevan late on July 25 in support of a group of gunmen who have occupied an Armenian police station for more than a week.

The demonstrators chanted “unity” and called for bystanders to join them — swelling their numbers as the march progressed along the streets of the Armenian capital and the demonstrators arrived at Yerevan’s central Republic Square.

It was the largest gathering of support for the gunmen since the crisis began on July 17.

Watch A Live Feed Of The Protest

The march began on July 25 after military helicopters were seen flying over the occupied police building.

The presence of the helicopters prompted speculation that a military raid against the gunmen was imminent.

The gunmen at the police station set a police van on fire near the building on July 25.

Meanwhile, Armenian law enforcement agencies called on the gunmen not to take any steps that would “risk the lives of citizens or that stir up tensions.”

One police officer was killed on July 17 when the gunmen, linked to the radical Founding Parliament opposition movement, stormed into the Erebuni police station.

The gunmen took seven police officers as hostages but released the last of them on July 23 after negotiations with a senior officer in Armenia’s armed forces.

The gunmen are members of a little-known group called Sasna Tsrer, dubbed by some the Daredevils of Sassoun, which is loyal to Founding Parliament’s leader Zhirayr Sefilian.

They say they have no intention of laying down their weapons until their demands are met.

Those demands include the resignation of President Serzh Sarkisian and the release of Sefilian, who was arrested along with six of his supporters on June 20 on illegal weapons charges.

Police initially accused Sefilian of preparing a plot to seize government buildings and telecommunication facilities in Yerevan.

Most of Sefilian’s supporters in Sasna Tsrer are veterans of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Founding Parliament is sharply critical of the way Armenia’s government has dealt with the long-running conflict over Azerbaijan’s breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh, a territory that both Armenia and Azerbaijan claim.

Armenians to hold march in support of Garo Paylan

May 11, 2016 By administrator

Armenian civic activists are planning to hold a march in Yerevan later today to extend their solidarity and support to Garo Paylan, the Turkish-Armenian lawmaker who has severely been beaten in parliament,
They activists have announced the event on Facebook.
They are planning to gather outside the central headquarters of Haypost to head to the UN Office.
In a speech at the Turkish Grand National Assembly in April (days before the Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day), Paylan resurrected the Armenian intellectuals and public figures, killed, arrested and exiled in the Genocide, calling for efforts to create a special commission investigating the circumstances behind their deaths and disappearance.