PROTEST ACTION IN VANADZOR
Support A1+!On February 29 about 2000 citizens of Vanadzor went on protest against election fraud and injustice during the presidential election in 2008. The rally was organized by the Vanadzor office of Helsinki Civil Assembly which had observed the election and during the rally revealed the violations and irregularities observed during the voting and the actions taken by the relevant agencies. Members of parliament from the Heritage Party Zaruhi Postanjian and Vardan Khachatrian also addressed the rally.
Arthur Sakunts, the chair of Helsinki Civil Assembly stated about pressure on the students of schools who had gone on protest on February 26 to protect the rights of their teachers who had been forced to go participate in the rally of Serzh Sarkissian in Yerevan. At that time the directors of two schools of Vanadzor mounted the stage to refute those facts. Arthur Sakunts asked the policemen to keep order and they asked the directors to get off the stage. The participants of the rally applauded to the policemen.
To hinder the rally, the city hall ordered to disconnect electricity in the beauty saloon from where the speakerphone had been connected. “We can hear each other without a speakerphone. Nobody can silence the voice of people,” the participants of the rally told Arthur Sakunts. 30 minutes after Arthur Sakunts’ address the citizens had not gone home, and the park where the rally took place turned into a free forum where the citizens freely expressed their opinion to the reporters of local media, in front of the camera of Gala TV of Gyumri, the speakerphone of the reporter of Radio Liberty.
