A radical Armenian opposition group said on Thursday that it will launch on April 24 a campaign of nonstop street protests in Yerevan aimed at forcing President Serzh Sarkisian to step down.
The start of the campaign planned by the Founding Parliament movement is timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide in Ottoman Turkey, which will be marked by high-profile official ceremonies. Scores of foreign dignitaries, including the presidents of France and Russia, are expected to arrive in Armenia on the occasion.
Zhirayr Sefilian, the Founding Parliament leader, said he and his political associates will rally supporters immediately after visiting the genocide memorial in Yerevan. “We are talking about around-the-clock rallies,” he told reporters. “We will tell the people to return home after we manage to get rid of this regime.”
“I think that in a matter of days we will force this regime to stop clinging to power at any cost,” claimed the Lebanese-born oppositionist. He said his group counts on the backing of not only ordinary Armenians but also elements in the government and the security apparatus unhappy with the Sarkisian administration.
Sefilian added that the Founding Parliament will clarify “in a few days” the venue of its planned rallies. He stressed that the protests will be peaceful and will not interfere with the commemorations of the genocide centennial.
The Founding Parliament, which holds no seats in parliament and is critical of the mainstream Armenian opposition, has been preparing for the campaign with nationwide gatherings held for the past several months. It has so far failed to attract large crowds.
In late January, the group attempted to take its campaign to Nagorno-Karabakh but met with a violent response from local security forces. It cancelled a similar protest planned in Armenia’s second largest city of Gyumri earlier this month, citing the need to avoid violent clashes with local government loyalists plotting a “provocation.”
Sefilian’s movement began facing what it considers a government crackdown in November. One of its members was beaten up in Yerevan in broad daylight following a series of arson attacks on cars belonging to six other Founding Parliament activists. Nobody has been prosecuted in connection with those incidents.
A prominent veteran of the Nagorno-Karabakh war, Sefilian has campaigned for regime change in Armenia and against any territorial concessions to Azerbaijan for almost a decade. He was arrested in 2006 after setting up a union of fellow war veterans opposed to then President Robert Kocharian. Armenia’s National Security Service (NSS) claimed that they planned to mount an armed uprising against the Kocharian government. Sefilian denied the charges as politically motivated.
Sefilian was cleared of the coup charge during his subsequent trial. Still, he was sentenced to 18 months in prison for illegal arms possession.