ARMENIA'S "WHITE CIVIL REVELUTION" STARTS
Today at 6PM as I was walking to the place I'm staying, I passed Parliament and on the side street, there was a water cannon truck, a barbwire truck and behind them was 3 large buses of riot police. The park next to Parliament was flooded with high-ranking police personal.
I sat in the cafe in the park and had a drink and waited to see what was going to happen. After waiting a bit, I called journalist friend of mine to see what was going on and he told me that there was an opposition meeting at the manuscript library, which could end with a march on the presidential palace.
I walked over to the manuscript library and found the meeting going. I made my way up to where the speakers were and when I wanted to get up close to get a picture, I was stopped by a couple of thugs who told me I can take pictures from down below. I told them that I could not get a good shot and it was too bad that I come from America and leave without a good picture. One of the guys asked me what city I was from and after telling him Los Angeles, he arranged to get me passed for a picture, which I got so close to Dermirchyan, Sarkissian and Manoukian, that I had to step back to get their picture. Talk about weak security.
I'm guessing that there were about 5 to 10 thousand people (I'm not really sure how one measures so I could be off a bit). Most of the people were older (over 60 years old).
The general message from all the speakers that all our problems started after October 27th, 1999 and before that, people had hope.
One of the people said that Kocharian has no defense for what he has done, but the Oligarch (the Mafia) and members of Parliament had a defense to where they got their money and power.
Aram Sarkissyan (Vasken's brother who was Prime Minister after Vasken was killed), said that Kocharian is not our President and we must get rid of him. He said that today they are not going to share with the people their plan to get rid of Kocharian, as when you go to battle with your enemy, you don't share with them your battle plan. He went on to assure the people that they have a battle plan. He also announced that this was the last meeting he and people like himself will attend and the next time they announce a meeting, it will be when Kocharian is finally out.
I left the meeting when it ended this after Garen Dermichyan spoke. Garen is recognized by the majority of the crowd to be real president of Armenia.
As we were leaving and flooding the Mashtots, the police was driving by in their car and on announcing to the crowd "Loving people, please walk on the sidewalk".
I heard one man talking about how Kocharian has no place to run and how when they increase the elderly persons pensions by 20 dram, they steal 1,000.
My overall impression was that there were no young people to speak of and those that were cheering and waving their hand were very old and some even appeared to be confused. No one seemed to agree when the speakers mentioned that our problems started on October 27th.
Today at 6PM as I was walking to the place I'm staying, I passed Parliament and on the side street, there was a water cannon truck, a barbwire truck and behind them was 3 large buses of riot police. The park next to Parliament was flooded with high-ranking police personal.
I sat in the cafe in the park and had a drink and waited to see what was going to happen. After waiting a bit, I called journalist friend of mine to see what was going on and he told me that there was an opposition meeting at the manuscript library, which could end with a march on the presidential palace.
I walked over to the manuscript library and found the meeting going. I made my way up to where the speakers were and when I wanted to get up close to get a picture, I was stopped by a couple of thugs who told me I can take pictures from down below. I told them that I could not get a good shot and it was too bad that I come from America and leave without a good picture. One of the guys asked me what city I was from and after telling him Los Angeles, he arranged to get me passed for a picture, which I got so close to Dermirchyan, Sarkissian and Manoukian, that I had to step back to get their picture. Talk about weak security.
I'm guessing that there were about 5 to 10 thousand people (I'm not really sure how one measures so I could be off a bit). Most of the people were older (over 60 years old).
The general message from all the speakers that all our problems started after October 27th, 1999 and before that, people had hope.
One of the people said that Kocharian has no defense for what he has done, but the Oligarch (the Mafia) and members of Parliament had a defense to where they got their money and power.
Aram Sarkissyan (Vasken's brother who was Prime Minister after Vasken was killed), said that Kocharian is not our President and we must get rid of him. He said that today they are not going to share with the people their plan to get rid of Kocharian, as when you go to battle with your enemy, you don't share with them your battle plan. He went on to assure the people that they have a battle plan. He also announced that this was the last meeting he and people like himself will attend and the next time they announce a meeting, it will be when Kocharian is finally out.
I left the meeting when it ended this after Garen Dermichyan spoke. Garen is recognized by the majority of the crowd to be real president of Armenia.
As we were leaving and flooding the Mashtots, the police was driving by in their car and on announcing to the crowd "Loving people, please walk on the sidewalk".
I heard one man talking about how Kocharian has no place to run and how when they increase the elderly persons pensions by 20 dram, they steal 1,000.
My overall impression was that there were no young people to speak of and those that were cheering and waving their hand were very old and some even appeared to be confused. No one seemed to agree when the speakers mentioned that our problems started on October 27th.
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