Daring Dashnaks: Nationalist Party vows protests against Turkish president’s Yerevan visit
National Assembly Vice-Speaker Hrair Karapetyan representing the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) urged the public to participate in protests against the arrival of the Turkish president in Armenia, which he said will begin from the airport, as he spoke before thousands of party sympathizers Tuesday.
Even though the Dashanktsutyun rally near Matenadaran was formally dedicated to the 17th anniversary of Nagorno-Karabakh’s declaration of independence from Azerbaijan, Karapetyan and other speakers put emphasis on Armenian-Turkish relations and Abdullah Gul’s visit to Armenia due on September 6. The municipality had initially banned the rally, but the administrative court later overturned that decision in favor of Dashnaktsutyun. Dashnaktsutyun Bureau member Levon Mkrtchyan said that relations with Turkey cannot improve unless the latter recognizes the genocide of Armenians committed by the Ottoman Turkish government in 1915. Reply |