On Thursday, while the unified opposition’s line of cars were roaming the city, the authorities finally showed how ”organized” their governed state is. Basically, by saying ”organized government”, they mean the red cap police officers, Internal Forces and transportation police officers that can be ”organized” in one second and sent to attack and beat any oppositionist, steal cars belonging to the workers of the National Security Services (NSS), even in front of the presidential dome.
After the leader of the Shengavit branch of the “Republic” political party Ashot Poghosyan was beaten with hand weapons in front of the Radio Building, when there was a need to call an ambulance due to the fact that Poghosyan was knocked out, the commander of the red cap police officers swore (I swear by the name of any officer), denied the fact that they had kicked and beat Poghosyan just five minutes ago. He was trying to convince president of the “Republic” political party that A. Poghosyan was the one who had been “rubbing himself against the ground” in front of the police officers’ car after seeing them. Yesterday, that same group of officers were surrounding the people gathered at the opposition meeting held in front of the Aram Khachatryan statue and were scaring the people by contacting their colleagues on the phone, saying “bring the weapons, gather them up and take them away”, etc. Others walking around the area were Vice chief of the Police Department of Armenia Hovhannes Varyan, Chief Police of Central community Hovhannes Tamanyan, Vice Chief of the Yerevan Police Department Sashik Afyan, who had warned all the police officers on Thursday at the Shahumyan square: “As soon as you see them cross the red light, go and punish them by writing a fee.”
Yesterday the authorities and the unified opposition were side by side-the opposition was holding its meeting in front of the Aram Khachatryan statue by declaring freedom from the authorities, while the authorities were throwing a live concert in the empty square in Opera. The only people present at the concert were president of the UN’s Yerevan branch Gurgen Arsenyan and National Assembly MP Hamlet Tamazyan. President of “Inheritance” political party Raffi Hovhannisyan said the following about the authorities: “The Republic of Armenia is not in your hands. We must show the world that we Armenians are not behind form the rest of the world and that there is no democracy in our country. They are forcing our doctors, teachers, other specialists and students to go against the law. Until November 27, we, the oppositionist side, will make sure that the rights of even the minority of Armenians is defended, the Armenians that are going to go and vote “….”. We are going to stay at the square, under tents and are going to create a new Armenia.. We will not leave”. Much later, R. Hovhannisyan announced that police had closed the roads of Gyumri, Vanadzor and Artashat coming to Yerevan and had forbid his followers from participating in the meeting. President of the “Justice” alliance Stepan Demirchyan, who left right after his speech, announced that they were not going to let these authorities turn Armenia into a feudal country. “Nothing can hold our people down. These attacks and pressures are nothing for us. Today, the opposition is unified, it is fighting and will continue to fight for justice and legality,” promised S Demirchyan. Actor Yervand Manaryan warned the authorities that they will no longer let “the authorities commit illegal acts by taking advantage of the people.” President of the “Soldier’s Defendant” committee Gohar Armenakyan announced at the meeting yesterday who is the one responsible for 20-year old Razmik Sargsyan’s hunger strike. “The person responsible is Ivan Grigoryan, who had come out to the peaceful meeting on April 12 of last year with a rubber tube and attacked the people. The military prosecutor’s office, under the leadership of Jhangiryan who is responsible for defending the army from illegalities, has become so close with criminals in the army that it is unable to do the job that it is assigned. The murders committed on purpose in the army turn into accidents.” Then, in his speech about the army leaders, G. Armenakyan said: “You are so cruel. Did God really create you, or did you come out of your mother’s womb with a satanic mind? If that is so, then it would have been better for that womb to dry up and become empty eternally because nothing good came out of it. We will see the condemnation of that criminal one day.”
During the meeting, Hovhannes Varyan had asked president of the “Republic” political party Aram Sargsyan not to put up tents at the Opera after the meeting, but A. Sargsyan did not listen to him and claimed that his political party was going to stay with the people until November 27. “We are saying “no” to these authorities and to this dictatorship. These authorities did not understand the fact that the people do not like them and did not accept them. Leave, enough is enough. It doesn’t matter what they do, they will never be accepted. They are wasting their time from October 27, 1999 until today,” said A. Sargsyan. “I would like to feel a sense of pride for the symbols of my country, I would like to be proud of the president of my country, but how can I possibly be proud of Robert Kocharyan? Is that possible?” The crowd screamed “no”. Then, he spoke to the police officers. “How are you going to look into your children’s eyes? What are you going to tell them? Don’t you feel any pity? Who are you defending the authorities from? The authorities must serve the people, policemen. They must first of all change your uniforms. Enough is enough. You shouldn’t be bribing people and calling cars to stop on the street. We are not going to stop for you, think about it. The police officer who has received a good education is also an intellectual. Don’t you want to know what’s really going on? Fine, you are a police officer today. But what is your child going to become? Ignore the authorities. We are going to stay here and we’re going to hold meetings until November 27. These are not all the forces that we have. We are going to double tomorrow and November 27 will be the culmination. That is why the authorities are in a state of chaos.” “Look, president of the Armenian Republican Political Party did not say one word during this whole time. As for Artur Baghdasaryan, he announced in Ukraine that the revolution has begun and still hasn’t ended. This means they want a revolution too,” said president of the “Republic” political party. President of “New Times” political party Aram Karapetyan said that “there is no end to the battle. We must fight until the finish.” “The authorities are hiding behind the policemen’s backs, trying to come up with ways for the officers to steal, so they can drive Jeeps and not end up in jail,” said Aram Karapetyan and called on the authorities to “come out and debate like men”. “The authorities’ goal is to have the criminal in the National Assembly. They don’t care about the people. They want to show us that they are the only men. If you are so man enough, come here, stand with us and talk to us however you see fit. If you want, I can talk to you man to man and politician to poltician. We are the rightful owners of this country and nobody has the right to call us chickens. We are going to be the ones to show if there is any manly figure in Armenia or not. They claim that they were the ones that built the Davtashen bridge. This means that there was nothing built in Armenia before Robert Kocharyan came from Karabagh? Could it be that he even created the Armenian alphabet instead of Mashtots? Enough is enough. Nobody is scared of you authorities.”
Later, orange colored buses arrived at the Opera house. There were more police officers and red cap policemen who got to work immediately and started to remove the oppositionist activists who were trying to set up a table in the center of the square in order to keep them from signing a petition for the oppostion. The people suggested forming a committee right there at the square which would be involved in the revolution petition. At 8:00 p.m., some people went to the Opera square with Raffi Hovhannisyan, Aram Sargsyan and others. Policemen and red cap officers got active again and contacted their colleagues to bring the “weapons”. “They left, hurry up and bring the weapons,” said one red cap officer running. And since the show/concert organized by the authorities was being broadcast live and since the authorities were afraid that the opposition might get up on stage and the people watching public television would see what was going on at the Opera square, the red cap officers and policemen quickly surrounded the stage. However, the opposition stood in the square with flags and “No to dictatorship” posters and was waiting until the concert ended so that they could put up their orange colored tents. Chief police officer of Yerevan Nerses Nazaryan approached Hovhannes Hovhannisyan and asked him to burn tents and set a bonfire at the square. “Until now, everything has gone well, but please, don’t set a bonfire and don’t put up tents. Go, it’s cold. You can do your meeting tomorrow,” said N. Nazaryan. However, H. Hovhannisyan said to N. Nazaryan that the leader of the meeting is Raffi Hovhannisyan and he decides what the people must do. As for R. Hovhannisyan, he was not only planning on retreating, but also, he had also brought food and sweets for the people that were going to stay up all night.
Then, chief police officers have personally tried to convince R. Hovhannisyan to go home and not stand out there in the cold so that they can go home safely too, but the president of “Inheritance” political party refused. The police officers, in their turn, threatened him by saying that they were not going to let his party set bonfires and get all comfy, or put up tents. They made it clear that as soon as they do that, they will immediately start beating people. Raffi Hovannisyan and the other oppositionists were standing at the square with the people waiting for the concert to end so that they could set up their tents. Students were scared of approaching the oppositionists. The oppositionists were circling them, but as soon as they saw officers, they acted as if they were listening to the concert. At around 9:00 p.m., food was distributed to the people, but they were demanding the oppositionists leaders to get up on stage, get through the chain of red cap officers and say what they had to say to the people, who had no idea what was going on in the center of the city. “They are only showing their concert,” said the people sadly.
After the concert, the people went to the square and after the lights went out, just when the oppositionists brought their little tents so they could sit and set a bonfire, H. Tamamyan’s vice approached them and said to Raffi Hovhannisyan: “You can not set a bonfire here. This is a central square.” “How come the ARF was setting bonfires as it went up Baghramyan street?”,asked the people present. H. Tamamyan’s vice was trying to prove that nobody will get warm with that bonfire. “If I see that people standing near this bonfire can get warm, I will say fine, do it. You can’t set a bonfire here. People might push each other around, fall in the fire, get burnt, etc.” Then the people started to debate with the vice. “Let us get warm, show some respect.” “If we are with you, we are only here because of respect, nothing more. We also could have laid down on our beds and slept. Couldn’t we?” said vice police officer of the Central community whose boss had gone to sleep. Someone from the crowd came up to the vice police officer and said: “You have always respected us and you will, it’s just that you have an order and you are doing your job. Do the job that defends people’s interests.” While this was going on, the fire went out on its own and the vice police officer said: “Did you see that? It went out on its own. So, it had to go out on its own.” “Fine, you are scared of the bonfire. What about the tents? Nobody is going to fall in the tent and get burnt,” said one man to the vice police officer. They turned on lighters at the square, but Raffi Hovhannisyan advised his party members to bring a stereo and folk song CDs. The police officers and red cap officers would also spend the night with the people and they would all take part in the meeting in the morning.