A contributor to this blog has sent me an Amnesty International video titled, “Your Signature is More Powerful than you Think,” in the hope that people around the world will start a petition calling on the authorities to stop the use of violence againgst presidential election protesters in Armenia. The video is below; the petition I was compelled to start is here.
I keep receiving e-mails from Armenia sent by people who have not initially supported the protests. But it seems that by now people are more concerned with how the protesters are handled and brutalized by the authorities. The subject of one e-mail, sent by a freelance journalist, reads “sos” and asks for action. The body e-mail is short and direct:
mi ban ara, saytumd gri
menk kaki mej enk [do something; write in your blog. we are in shit]
Another journalist in Armenia, Onnik Krikorian, has left a comment on one of my posts advising caution on reporting rumors on killed protesters.
…please, let’s confirm the number of fatalities first before we quote them and they get taken as fact. From what I understand, nobody died this morning. Tonight, however, is going to be very bloody indeed.
Eyewitnesses at the scene have told ArmeniaNow that a woman struck when a police vehicle drove into a crowd of protesters near the Yerevan Municipal Building was killed by the blow.
An American citizen in the crowd also said he saw the police vehicle move into the crowd at a low-rate of speed running over three protestors including the woman, whom he, too believed to have been killed. After the vehicle stopped and its driver removed, the crowd set fire and burned the vehicle and subsequently two others.
The Ministry of Health, however, told ArmeniaNow that there have been no fatalities resulting from today’s clashes between law enforcement and opposition protestors.
I am now told that 10 people have been killed in the protest clashes in Armenia and that the number of Armenians in front of the French Embassy is 5,000.
One thing that can’t be denied about the post-election protests in Armenia is that the polarization seems to have no limits. The comments that people – on either side – leave on YouTube videos showing the clashes are extremely angry and irrational. People are cursing each other and calling the authorities “Turks” – further demonstrating the social revolution that Armenia needs.
I am not defending one or the other but while we call on the authorities not to use brutality we should also ask the protesters to stop violently cursing people and calling those they don’t like “Turks.” It doesn’t just show the level of intolerance among Armenians but to their neighbors as well.
FUCK… as I am writing this I am being told from a friend in Texas that she was just told that 6 people have died. 🙁 Don’t know what to say.
It is 25 minutes after noon in Armenia (March 1, 2008) and 1:00 at night in Colorado but I had to wake up and write this. Although I did read about the “cleaning up” of the protesters who had occupied the Liberty Square some of my friends from Yerevan sent me several text messages telling that Armenia’s authorities are using brutal methods to fight protesters who disagree with last week’s presidential election results . I am talking to some friends on Yahoo messenger and also writing this at the same time.
One friend is saying that the police are at this minute beating up the protesters and many have found refuge in foreign embassies, especially at the French embassy building.
A1Plus, a banned TV station, has posted a short video on the ongoing battle about 50 minutes ago:
In an e-mail addressed to an online group, an aquintance sent from Armenia the following minutes ago:
At about 7 am on March 1 the police and internal force dispersed the protest meeting at the Square of Freedom lasting for the tenth day which was initiated by Levon Ter-Petrosyan and his supporters who disputed the result of the vote.
Regnum reports that at the time when the meeting was dispersed the first president Levon Ter-Petrosyan was at the square who, according to the news agency, urged several thousand people at the Square not to resist to the police.
Witnesses said the police used truncheons and other special means, and the operation lasted for 10-15 minutes. Now the police and the internal forces have blocked the city center. Regnum reports that the police gathered the tents in which the protestors spent the night. Regnum reports traces of blood are seen in the square.
***
In the morning of March 1 Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s office issued a press release concerning the police action on the peaceful protestors.
“Today in the morning of 7.30 about 5 thousand policemen were deployed at the Square of Freedom who dispersed peace protestors. The police force led by the chief of Robert Kocharyan’s security tried to arrest the first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Levon Ter-Petrosyan demanded to show the warrant, which they did not do. At the moment Levon Ter-Petrosyan is at the Square of Freedom surrounded by policemen. Some members of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s team are missing. Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that they will try to continue the protest meeting at 3 pm,” runs the release.
***
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s office reports that on March 1, at 3 pm the protest will continue which was dispersed by the police force in the morning of the same day.
The rally of protest is foreseen to continue at the Square of Freedom , which is now surrounded by the police force. If it is impossible to hold the rally at the Square of Freedom , the rally will take place in North Avenue , if not, at the Square of Republic .
We have learned that Levon Ter-Petrosyan has been taken home from the Square of Freedom . There is no information about members of LevonTer-Petrosyan’s team who have been arrested.
The friend who woke me up says there is another protest growing up for 3:00 p.m. in Yerevan (in less than three hours).
Although the group that created the popular YES WE CAN song has just come up with another one endorsing Barack Obama for presidency, there are other songs that go unreported.
FlipRiotSquad, for instance, has recently posted a rap on the Democratic candidate called “Barack Obama – The People’s President.”
I have received two e-mails in regards to the article I reposted about vandalism at an Armenian Church in California. A painting of what appeared to be Turkey’s flag was deemed as a ‘hate crime’ by the local police. And while a Turkish-American who had nothing to do with the vandalism says he regrets the crime, the Armenian priest of the church says there was no vandalism and, thus, no need to apologize for it.
The first e-mail to me – the subject of which read, “i regret that your church was vandalized………..from a Turkish-American” – stated:
[…]
I regret what happened and I hope the culprit in the church vandalism is found soon.
[…]
Another e-mail, from a member of the church that was vandalised, informed me of a blog post by the church’s priest who sees no hate in the church vandalism. Fr. Vazken writes:
It started Sunday – we noticed a child’s drawing on the wall. It was a moon and a star. I received a call later in the afternoon from an officer at the Glendale Police Department. The graffiti-art had been reported as a hate crime to the department.
Monday morning, a reporter from the Glendale Newspress came by the church looking for the evidence. Horizon (Armenian TV) sent a camera man. The Diocese (one of the priests) called and asked “What happened? Did someone paint a Swastika on your church?” By midday, a non-story was taking form and shape.
And so… this morning, it didn’t surprise me when the Daily News headlined, “Vandal spray-paints Turkish flag on Armenian church wall”
Wow! A moon and a star had now been transformed into a Turkish hate crime against the Armenians! What is it about hatred and evil that makes good copy? I guess it sells newspapers.
[…]
Although it is amazingly kind of an Armenian priest not to see hate in the drawing, it is interesting that he refuses to call it a vandalism either.
Showing off? Perhaps, not. I have personally met Fr. Vazken and he is a very good person. This is the guy who organizes “Blood for Blood” event in April asking Armenians to donate blood in commemorating the Armenian genocide by the Turks.
Azerbaijan’s regime is pulling its NATO troops from newly-independent Kosovo in apparent fears that the west’s recognition of the tiny state might serve as precedent for Nagorno-Karabakh independence.
Azeri President Ilham Aliyev has asked parliament to vote to withdraw the ex-Soviet country’s peacekeepers from Kosovo, an Azeri official said on Thursday.
Aliyev submitted the initiative to a parliamentary committee this week, and the vote is expected on March 4. The proposal is expected to pass into law with little opposition.
Azerbaijan has had 33 soldiers serving in Kosovo since 1999 with a Turkish battalion under NATO command.
Deputy Foreign Minister Araz Azimov said Kosovo’s recent declaration of independence from Serbia had “sharply changed the political scene”.
“Azerbaijan, as well as a host of other NATO partner-countries, is now re-examining the position of its peacekeeping platoon,” Azimov told reporters.
[…]
Karabakh, an indigenous Armenian enclave that Stalin annexed to Soviet Azerbaijan in the 1920s, is de facto independent from Azerbaijan after a war in the 1990s that killed thousands of people on both sides. Azerbaijan’s regime has said it will do everything to return its Soviet territory.
Since Turkey has hailed Kosovo’s independence, it will be interesting to see how fiercely Azerbaijan will deny Kosovo’s independence given Turkey’s and Azerbaijan’s close relationship.
The New York Times has an interesting article on the popular fear of Obama being assassinated in which it makes clear that almost everyone but Obama think of a possible attempt on the Democratic candidate’s life:
[…]
That afternoon, Mr. Obama’s motorcade passed Dealey Plaza and the Texas Book Depository building, where the fatal shot was fired at President Kennedy in 1963. Several campaign aides looked out their windows, silently absorbing the scene.
Not so for Mr. Obama, who later said he had not realized he was passing the site. And no one in his car pointed it out.
“I’ve got to admit, that’s not what I was thinking about,” he said. “I was thinking about how I was starting to get a head cold and needed to make sure that I cleared up my nose before I got to the arena.”