In an interview with “Zhamanak Yerevan” human rights activist Vartan Harutiunian asserts that while on March 1 “the authorities showed to the world and the people what they are capable of, the same day also showed what our people are capable of.”
“The authorities had set themselves the task of breaking up the protest in Liberty Square and sending people home first by beating them and later that day by firing at them… But it proved impossible to break the people’s fighting spirit either before or after March 1.”
“Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” quotes Levon Ter-Petrosian as saying on August 5, 1994 during a consultation of law-enforcement bodies: “Populism, that is a primitive way of presenting the reality to people and an offer of a cure for all, finds a fertile ground with some of the people. And this inspires many of our friends. The slogans and methods of these rallies are very interesting, too. By 99 percent Opera Square today is filled with obscenities. No such thing happened in the rallies from 1988 to 1990… The program is one – to destroy these authorities and foist those standing on the stage in Opera Square upon the nation.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” writes: “The absurdity of the regime action is that they won’t gain anything no matter what the outcome is. If they deploy tanks and a few thousand policemen near Matenadaran, hire assassins to fire from the roofs of buildings, so what? Will Serzh Sarkisian’s government become more legitimate then? Will the general hatred of the regime weaken? Will people’s social condition improve? Will Armenia’s positions be strengthened in the Karabakh peace process?...”
“Aravot” writes in its editorial: “If you don’t promise that you will destroy and say that you will simply redress some shortcomings with some program, you cannot mobilize the protest electorate. There will always be a more radical opposition group that will tell this electorate: the one who is offering this program to you is a “pocket” opposition, and so, comrades, let’s move forward towards the barricades. And it is this group that people will follow. Since the protest electorate makes a majority in Armenia, the opposition in our country can be only radical.”
“Hraparak” reports that a large group of traffic policemen had been dispatched to Yerevan from provinces by the order of Chief of Police Alik Sarkisian: “The purpose of this dispatch is that the policemen, who unlike their Yerevan colleagues yet can not recognize the license plates of different oligarchs and officials, should stop and fine offending drivers without any complexes. But we think it will last until the first beating when the son of some impudent oligarch will give a good thrashing to the policeman who will dare stop him. After that, the newly introduced traffic policemen will learn all license plates by heart to avoid trouble in the future.”
(Armen Dulian)
“The authorities had set themselves the task of breaking up the protest in Liberty Square and sending people home first by beating them and later that day by firing at them… But it proved impossible to break the people’s fighting spirit either before or after March 1.”
“Hayastani Hanrapetutyun” quotes Levon Ter-Petrosian as saying on August 5, 1994 during a consultation of law-enforcement bodies: “Populism, that is a primitive way of presenting the reality to people and an offer of a cure for all, finds a fertile ground with some of the people. And this inspires many of our friends. The slogans and methods of these rallies are very interesting, too. By 99 percent Opera Square today is filled with obscenities. No such thing happened in the rallies from 1988 to 1990… The program is one – to destroy these authorities and foist those standing on the stage in Opera Square upon the nation.”
“Chorrord Ishkhanutyun” writes: “The absurdity of the regime action is that they won’t gain anything no matter what the outcome is. If they deploy tanks and a few thousand policemen near Matenadaran, hire assassins to fire from the roofs of buildings, so what? Will Serzh Sarkisian’s government become more legitimate then? Will the general hatred of the regime weaken? Will people’s social condition improve? Will Armenia’s positions be strengthened in the Karabakh peace process?...”
“Aravot” writes in its editorial: “If you don’t promise that you will destroy and say that you will simply redress some shortcomings with some program, you cannot mobilize the protest electorate. There will always be a more radical opposition group that will tell this electorate: the one who is offering this program to you is a “pocket” opposition, and so, comrades, let’s move forward towards the barricades. And it is this group that people will follow. Since the protest electorate makes a majority in Armenia, the opposition in our country can be only radical.”
“Hraparak” reports that a large group of traffic policemen had been dispatched to Yerevan from provinces by the order of Chief of Police Alik Sarkisian: “The purpose of this dispatch is that the policemen, who unlike their Yerevan colleagues yet can not recognize the license plates of different oligarchs and officials, should stop and fine offending drivers without any complexes. But we think it will last until the first beating when the son of some impudent oligarch will give a good thrashing to the policeman who will dare stop him. After that, the newly introduced traffic policemen will learn all license plates by heart to avoid trouble in the future.”
(Armen Dulian)