The seventeen political parties against the constitutional amendments organized a meeting on Saturday and this meeting was not like any other. The column of cars with the orange flag on top traveled from the Shahumyan square in Yerevan to the region of Shirak with the purpose of the “no” propaganda.
Other members from the cities of Ashtarak and Talin and the neighboring villages joined the column as it spread the “no” propaganda. There were more than 150 cars when the column reached Gyumri. But before getting to Gyumri, the “no” propagandists held small meetings in the cities of Maralik and Artik of the Shirak region. Despite the terribly cold weather (snow had fallen in Shirak region on Saturday morning), there were many people gathered. As for Gyumri, the number of people there was less than expected-two thousand. Nevertheless, the oppositionists were cordially welcomed. As stated by leader of the “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan, he had been in Tbilisi during the “Revolution of Roses” in Georgia and he remembers that there were less people gathered for the opposition’s meetings. President of the “Republic” political party Aram Sargsyan said the following: “True, there are not a lot of people but we can achieve our goal no matter how many we are in number. Let’s just say that we don’t need too many people to drive these authorities away.” According to Aram Sargsyan, they plan on starting the “no” propaganda in Gyumri because “here is where the ice is broken, here is where the people can not resist the authorities. After all, we could have gone to the region of Ararat, or Ararat city, or my village. But we came to the place where there are many people and Gyumri is that place in Armenia,” said A. Sargsyan. He called on the people to put the constitution and its contents aside due to the fact that the political party wants to turn the referendum into a referendum where the authorities’ trust will be put to the test. “I have no goal to say “no” to the constitution or do propaganda. When Galust Sahakyan, Tigran Torosyan, Armen Rostamyan or Garnik Isagulyan propagandize “yes” on television, that is enough for any oppositionist to propagandize “no”,” said A. Sargsyan. The opposition is going to go around the regions for one purpose only: to invite everyone to Yerevan on November 27. “We have come here to invite you all to Yerevan. On November 27, you will vote until 12 and then come to Yerevan because the problems are not solved here, but rather in Yerevan,” said A. Sargsyan to the residents of Gyumri. He is certain that on referendum day, the authorities are not going to close the streets because they are going to be too busy with falsifying the results. So, “this constitution is kind of like an awl sharpened from both sides for Robert Kocharyan and he can not escape from this.” Aram Sargsyan assured the residents of Gyumri that the Western World has not had anything to do with the colorful revolutions taking place in the post-Soviet countries. The people of those countries are the ones who have organized the revolutions and we Armenians have to show our neighboring countries that we are no different than them. Leader of “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan assured that during his upcoming fight the opposition is not going to make the same mistake as it did before. According to him, this time the opposition will not withdraw and will make it to the gates located on 26 Baghramyan street. “This time, wherever one leader stops the others will pass him,” he said. According to president of the National Democratic Union Vazgen Manukyan, when the issue regarding the change of power in Armenia is solved, it will then be time to talk about making amendments to the constitution. In his opinion, the major issues today are not the constitutional amendments, the return of deposits, creating work places, but rather returning the authorities to its rightful owners-the people.
However, in Vazgen Manukyan words, the authorities today belong not to the people, but rather to a “bunch of hooligans” whom we need to say “enough is enough” and drive them away from the country.
Some intellectuals had also joined the opposition on their visit to Shirak region, including academician Rafael Ghazaryan and Yervand Manaryan. According to Yervand Manaryan, at his age, instead of participating in a referendum, he was supposed to be peacefully relaxing in his home. “I have a 5 year old grandchild and I am truly worried about what she will think when she grows up and gets accepted into an institute. What kind of country will I have left for her? I feel that I am some kind of slave. This is slavery. The worse is to think towards slavery.”
Judging from the moods of the residents of Gyumri present at the meeting, we can say that they are tired of being slaves for the authorities. However, they are not sure whether or not the opposition will hold back during the struggle. “Mr. Sargsyan, we have lost faith. We will come this time too, but make sure that at least this time you will carry things to the finish. The important thing is to take action. Enough is enough,” said one woman of Gyumri to A. Sargsyan after the meeting.
P.S. We must mention that out of all the oppositionist political parties spreading the “no” propaganda only the Armenian Republican Party was the one who was not participating as leader. Only National Assembly MP Vartan Mkrtchyan was the one member of the party present. As for Stepan Demirchyan, he had only been in Artik a couple of days ago.