Live: ORO alliance gathers supporters at Liberty Square /updated/ (video)
20.30 The alliace is holding a march through the streets of Yerevan
20.00 "We have built our heroic way with national minorities living in Armenia," said Armenia’s former Defense Minister Seyran Ohanyan, who leads the ORO alliance.
He mentioned the names of all nations, stressing that their sons had given their lives for Artsakh.
19.50 Raffi Hovannisian, a member of the ORO alliance and Chairman of the Heritage party, began his speech reciting the national anthem. “We should fight not to the end, but to the beginning of Armenia’s sovereignty,” he said.
19.24 A Kurdish woman who introduced herself as Zeyna made an unexpected appearance and addressed the ralliers at Liberty Square. She said she was not afraid of anything. She lost her son in the war. “I have come here to say that although I am not affiliated with his party, I see wonderful people gathered here. why shouldn’t I bow my head before Seyran Ohanyan who is sharing my grief with me. Mr Vigen Sargsyan, I know that you are a graduate of Harvard University but you were to graduate from the university of the victims' families as well. I have applied to you four times. Where are you? Why don’y you respond to my lettters? What is the reason for your silence?” she said.
19.15 “This square is a sacred place,” Ashot Manucharyan, a member of the Karabakh Committee, said addressing people gathered at Liberty Square. “People who gather here govern this country. Our country is to make a crucial decision,’ he added.
19.01 Addressing the ralliers at Yerevan’s Liberty Square, Armen Martirosyan, who runs for Parliament on a ticket of the RO alliance, spoke about the obstacles put in the bloc’s way during the election campaign.
Along with bloc’s posters, people gathered at the square are also carrying the photos of Samvel Babayan, a former military commander of Artsakh who was placed under two month’s pre-trial detention for smuggling a Russian-made surface-to-air Igla system to Armenia.
The ralliers observed a moment of silence for Artur Sargsyan, nicknamed the ‘bringer of bread,’ an activist who died last. Sargsyan was charged with aiding opposition gunmen last summer. He drove his car through a police cordon to deliver food to armed members of the Sasna Dzrer group that seized a police base in Yerevan in July.
“Our cause is just. The power should be changed in Armenia and Serzh Sargsyan should step down with his Republican Party of Armenia (HHK). The authorities have recorded ‘real’ progress: the country’s debt will increase from 1,7 billion to 6,2 bln by the end of the year. We demand that Samvel Babayan and other political prisoners be released immediately. There should be a healthy climate and an atmosphere of unity in Armenia,’ he said.
