Gibrahayer e-magazine www.gibrahayer.com - Demonstrators take the Yerevan streets‏

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Circulates every Wednesday - Established in 1999DEMONSTRATORS TAKE THE STREETS
ON ANNIVERSARY OF MARCH 1 CLASHES

Monday March 2, 2009 - Asbarez - YEREVAN - Thousands poured into the streets of Yerevan on Sunday to rally on the first anniversary of the country's deadliest political clashes since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union.

In a protest not sanctioned but tolerated by the Armenian authorities, demonstrators marched through the site of the March 1, 2008 clashes between security forces and opposition protesters that left ten people dead and more than 200 others injured.
Hundreds of Armenians Saturday night lit candles and placed flowers at the site outside the Yerevan mayor's office where thousands of people had barricaded themselves following the break-up of non-stop opposition protests in the city's Liberty Square.
The crowd Sunday silently filed past the granite plinth following a rally outside the Madenataran institute of ancient manuscripts led by former president Levon Ter-Petrossian. The demonstration took place peacefully, with police officers deployed along its route making no attempts to disperse it. Protesters later marched through Yerevan to the area near the French embassy where the clashes took place, before laying flowers and dispersing peacefully.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch last Wednesday accused Armenia of conducting "politically motivated" trials against the opposition while failing to investigate the use "excessive force" by police during the clashes.
As was the case during the previous opposition rallies, the authorities appeared to have seriously restricted Yerevan's transport communication with the rest of the country on Sunday in order to lower attendance at the rally.
President Serzh Sargsyan, meanwhile, paid his respects to the two police servicemen and eight civilians killed in the clashes, lighting candles in their memory at Yerevan's Sourp Sarkis church. For his part, Catholicos Karekin II presided over a prayer service for the victims at the main cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Echmiadzin.
In a 45-minute speech at the Madenataran rally, Ter-Petrossian again blamed the authorities for the bloodshed.
It was the first opposition rally since a moratorium on anti-government street protests in the capital declared by Ter-Petrossian and his Armenian National Congress (ANC) on October 17. Some ANC supporters hoped that it will mark the start of a fresh opposition push for power similar to the massive non-stop rallies held in Liberty Square in the wake of the February 2008 presidential election.
Ter-Petrossian, who had touted his 2008 campaign as a “classic bourgeois-democratic revolution,” made clear on Sunday that he is now against attempts to effect “immediate regime change” and favours instead a “prolonged struggle” with the Sargsyan administration.

RAKEL DINK VISITS HAIGAZIAN UNIVERSITY

Beirut, 23/02/2009- On Friday, February 20, 2009, Mrs. Rakel Dink, widow of renowned Armenian activist journalist, editor of the Turkish-Armenian Agos newspaper, Hrant Dink, paid a special visit to Haigazian University.
Dink, who was in Beirut for a very short sojourn, was hosted by the Union of the Armenian Evangelical Churches in the Near East, as the keynote speaker of the joint worship service dedicated to the feast of St. Vartan.
Dink shared with the Haigazian University staff, faculty and students, her experiences related to the assassination of Hrant and his tireless efforts to promote human rights and freedom of thought and speech for all minorities in Turkey. She also briefed about “The Hrant Dink Foundation” as a foundation that promotes universal values like, consciousness, responsibility, and accountability in writing and speaking, and open dialogue between cultures. She further reflected upon the challenges of living as Armenians in Turkey.
Also organised by Haigazian University, Mrs. Dink had the opportunity to meet with a select group of Armenian women representing different denominations, institutions, and cultural organizations in Lebanon, sharing with them her personal experience vis a vis the assassination of her late husband, her faith, values and priorities in life, as well as her new challenges.

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