Opposition Supporters Allowed To Return To Northern Avenue

OPPOSITION SUPPORTERS ALLOWED TO RETURN TO NORTHERN AVENUE

Noyan Tapan

Se p 11, 2008

YEREVAN, SEPTEMBER 11, NOYAN TAPAN. After dispersing the participants
in an everyday "political" walk and the seven hunger strikers in
Northern Avenue on the evening of September 9, policemen closed
that section of the avenue, preventing anyone from walking in the
area. On finding the avenue closed at about 7 pm of September 10,
the opposition supporters gradually gathered near the Swan Lake. An
hour later policemen formed a chain and approached the people, pushing
them and urging them to go away. About a hundred citizens tried to
go round the lake, after which the law enforcers surrounded them and
pushed them away to Terian Street where the opposition activists
stopped and began chanting "Serzhik, Killer", "Struggle, Struggle
Till the End" and "Levon, President". Passers-by and drivers greeted
them by raising their fists and joining the chanting.

Some time later the representative of the Armenian National Congress
Levon Zurabian informed the activists that an agreement had been
reached during negotiations with police. In his words, those who
gathered were allowed to return to Northern Avenue – instead, starting
from September 10, "political" walks shall pass without noise and last
until 10 pm. L. Zurabian also declared that the reason for postponing
the September 12 meeting until September 15 was that the mayor’s
office permitted to hold it on September 15 and that the radical
opposition intends to act within the law and use the possibilities
envisaged by the law.

At 8:30 pm the oppositionists returned to Northern Avenue to continue
their walk.

http://www.nt.am/news.php?shownews=117296