While a state of emergency in Armenia legally bans protests in the capital city of Yerevan, many leftist Armenians in Southern California are at this minute protesting the election results and the government’s handling of the protests in Armenia. Some have called on fellow Armenian-Americans to ask Congress to condemn Armenia’s “repressive regime.”

Image: Feb 24, 2008 protest in Southern California via a press release

The protest in Little Armenia, a district in metro Los Angeles, is said to have started at noon on Sunday, March 2, 2008 (local time).

There was another protest a week ago in Little Armenia attended by thousands of Armenian-Americans according to a press release by the organizers.  Some of the protesters, I am told from sources in California, are also angry with the Armenian Revolutionary Federation’s – a political party active in Armenia and the Diaspora – passiveness in the protests.

An unseen footage of Hrant Dink, the Armenian journalist whose funeral was attended by over 100,000 people in Turkey, shows the journalist saying in November of 2006 he would rather die on feet than in bed.  He smiled while talking about his possible death.

Prof. Levon Marashlian has prepared a short video, posted at YouTube, in Dink’s memory.

Some of the video (seems has not been shown anywhere before) is from November, 2006 in Glendale, California.  As Prof. Marashlian likes videodocumenting almost everything, I believe this was shot by him.

Dink speaks Armenian, but there is English subtitle too.  With his wonderful smile, Dink adds, “If something is going to happen, I’d rather struggle on feet, and die on feet, and not in bed.”

Interestingly, Dink doesn’t pronounce the word “death/die” but Marashlian still puts it in the subtitle, because no other word could fit in the sentence.

Dink didn’t fear death and smiled while talking about it.

Rest in peace, Dink pasha.