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Tuesday 17 February 2009

PACE: Armenian authorities should fully respect the principle of freedom of assembly

Last year, in June, to 'justify' banning opposition rallies in Liberty sq, Armenian authorities set up the 'amusement park', or 'children's park', there. Someone(s) is lacking originality and imagination, and it's time for a déjà vu. Yerevan municipality refused to authorise the rally in central Yerevan (outside the Matenadaran institute of ancient manuscripts) citing already planned 'little Matenadarantsi', a 'children's event', there. They went further banning the rally on Northern avenue too.
They also said there’s an “expert conclusion” stating the rally on Northern Avenue might “endanger the health and security of the people due to ongoing construction works there. (Now that one’s funny - I haven’t seen any traces of construction there for months!)
To complete this picture, below is a statement issued today by infamous Prescott & Colombier of PACE.

Strasbourg, 17.02.2009 - John Prescott and Georges Colombier , co-rapporteurs on Armenia 's monitoring for the Parliamenatry Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), expressed their concern about the refusal of the authorities to allow the Armenian National Congress (HAK) to organise a peaceful rally in Central Yerevan on 1 March 2009. They stressed that the Assembly has on several occasions called upon the authorities to fully respect the principle of freedom of assembly in Armenia and not to place undue restrictions, especially with regard to the requested venues, upon peaceful rallies organised by the opposition. In their view , the possibility for all political forces to organise peaceful rallies is an essential component of democracy and therefore call upon the authorities to allow such peaceful rallies to take place unimpeded in the requested venues. (PACE)

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I refuse to believe anyone will take their kids to any amusement park on March 1 let alone near Matenadaran or Liberty square...for me March 1 is another tragedy date just like 24 April...
and 24 April is my sibling's birthday which we "mark" at genocide march...
How can govt be so pathetic even to talk about "amusements" on march 1?! But then again, mahatsatzneri qarasunqin bazmaguin puchikner chein trcnum od inniaguraciain...

Anonymous said...

///for me March 1 is another tragedy date just like 24 April...///

again, started .... denialism is final act of Genocide

comparing riots to the Genocide is the worst form of denialism

Anonymous said...

I will have to disappoint every anonymous even more. The word "genocide" is used in Armenia on daily bases to describe what people are going through at the hands of govt/oligarchs/system...
If this is not genocide what exactly is this???

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZOGclbIsKo&feature=channel_page

And I, like mny others, feel the same pain for March 1 victims as for 24 April or those massacred in Azerbaijan. Perpetrators are different but the victim is the same: Armenian nation...or maybe killed guys are not important as long as the killers are not Turks?
I wonder which "act of denialism" is blamig the victims?

Anonymous said...

"Riot", "coloured revolution", right? Yeah, right!
Just like "Silva Harotonian, a young Armenian woman working as an administrative assistant with an Armenian NGO focused on maternal and child health issues in Iran, was detained last year by Iranian authorities on wrongful -- and unexplained -- charges of conspiring to instigate a revolution."

http://aramanoogian.blogspot.com/