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Thousands protest in Armenian capital, call for bigger rally Friday

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  • Thousands protest in Armenian capital, call for bigger rally Friday

    Thousands gather at protest in Armenian capital, call for bigger rally Friday

    AP Worldstream
    Apr 05, 2004


    An estimated 8,000 opposition demonstrators gathered for a rally in
    the center of the Armenian capital on Monday, and one of the protest's
    leaders said an even larger demonstration to take place Friday.

    "A change of power is unavoidable," Artashes Gegamian, leader of the
    National Unity bloc, told the gathering. "Massive acts of protest will
    begin April 9."

    Armenia is gripped by an array of dissatisfactions _ from poverty to
    the unresolved status of the ethnic Armenian enclave of
    Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan _ which were aggravated by widespread
    complaints that last year's presidential and parliamentary elections
    were fraudulent.

    Unidentified youths smashed video and still cameras of several
    journalists at the rally.

    Some women at the rally circulated among police, giving them
    carnations in an apparent echo of the roses given by protesters to
    police in neighboring Georgia during last year's massive
    demonstrations that forced President Eduard Shevardnadze to resign.
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