Opposition honours the memory of March 1 victims
A year ago, on March 1, the Armenian police stormed into the tents of peaceful demonstrators in downtown Yerevan and drove them off the Square of Liberty. They truncheoned and crackdowned on the demonstrators leaving 10 dead and 200 injured in the city's central streets. A state of emergency was announced in the capital with a restriction of civil rights.
On March 1, 2009, Armenia's opposition rallied thousands of people near the Matenadaran to honour the memory of the March 1 victims.
"A year has passed since the deadly events of last March but no one has been brought to justice for the murders of the ten victims.
Once being a cradle of democracy, Armenia was defamed during the tenure of Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargyan.
I expected nothing more from these two people whose power is based on the October 27 carnage and on the March 1 bloodshed," Armenia's first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan said during the rally on March 1.
He noted that if once the Europeans cited Armenia's example, today they advise Azerbaijan not to follow Armenia's path.
Levon Ter-Petrosyan also cited the words of a European diplomat who said that Europe did not impose sanctions on Armenia as the latter is backed by Russia and other superpowers having a great influence on the PACE parliamentarians.
"The European diplomat classifies countries into three groups: Western European democracies, Azerbaijan cannot compare with, Eastern European democracies which have taken the path of democracy and should serve as a good model for Azerbaijan, and finally, tyrannies including Armenia, Somali and Zimbabwe," said Armenia's first President.
The rally was followed by a march to the Statue of Miasnikyan where the ralliers honoured the memory of the victims with a minute's silence.
The oppositions next rally is due on May 1.
