On September 24, Republic Square in Armenia’s capital city Yerevan, was filled with protestors. It was the fourth consecutive day of protests demanding the resignation of the government. The rally started with the discussion of the situation in Artsakh.
“In general, these are the tasks of the state, but since today we don’t have a state, the state is headless and a completely different thing has been put in the place of the head of the state, we have to take over some of these tasks ourselves. We, the responsible citizens of this country, gathered here,” said Avetik Chalabyan, a member of the recently formed National Committee.
Hayk Mamijanyan, another member of the National Committee, reflected on Nikol Pashinyan’s video message earlier in the day, stating “He has failed our entire foreign policy, handed over Artsakh, made us stand alone in front of Turks and Azerbaijanis, destroyed our army, put our glorious generals in fortresses and so on. then he dares to say that the patriots standing here will harm the independence of our country. He once again makes a division between black and white, he once again tries to put the blame on the people standing here when he tries to surrender the country with a conspiracy war with the Turks.”
During the rally, students of Yerevan State University announced that they joined calls for walkouts. “We were promised peace, but they brought war – three wars in three years. We refuse this reality, we cannot sit quietly in class when our country is being led to destruction, the audience is not a shelter, go on strike, go out to fight,” they said.
Member of the National Committee Vazgen Manukyan called on the political forces fighting for the change of power to show solidarity and work together. “Forgive each other, join hands, complement each other. We all have to do it together. I am ready to meet the political forces together with the colleagues of the committee. Let them come, the issue can be solved only with solidarity, being united we can defeat this demon,” add Manukyan.
Ishkhan Saghtelyan, chairman of the Supreme Council of the ARF Armenia, and a member of the National Committee, presented the tasks to be done following day.
He stated that disobedience protests will start the next day at 8:00 am.
“Our only resource is you, the Armenian people. We do not have police, we do not have armed gangs, we are not foreign agents, or financed by some people. We have to make this change ourselves by adding our team. We have to go out on the streets, raise the level of disobedience to a level where the government will be brought to its knees. In order to achieve the final change, we need each other not only in this rally, but also at 8 o’clock in the morning to start the actual actions. Tomorrow morning from 8:00 to 11:00 widespread disobedience protests will be held in the capital,” announced Ishkhan Saghatelyan.
After the rally held in Republic Square, the citizens marched to the Police Station.
“We are not going to meet someone, we are going to express our protest against police brutality and show our strength,” stated Vazgen Manukyan.
Citizens chanted “Artsakh”, “Artsakh”, “Artsakh”.
