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Armenia's ex-presidential candidate Raffi Hovannisian is holding a rally in Yerevan's Freedom Square. During the last meeting, Mr Hovannisian invited Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan, Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan and Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan to "hand in their resignations."According to him, Armenia's authorities must kneel down and he is not going to take his turtleneck sweater off until they admit the people's victory.No play on words, Mr Hovannisian said. He reminded the attendees of his application to Armenia's Constitutional Court (CC). He is determined to continue his struggle though Armenia's people do not have to resort to civil disobedience."The authorities must obey the people. Otherwise, they must face a popular verdict," Mr Hovannisian said.According to him, in their interim report the OSCE/ODIHR observation mission accepted the people's victory and corrected their mistake.In their geopolitical interests, Russia, the United Stat es and other nations recognize illegitimate authorities."It is not too late to make a revision," Mr Hovannisian said. According to him, "from now on we cannot recognize the OSCE Minsk Group. Therefore, we are not going to recognize its decisions and principles."According to him, Nagorno-Karabakh must immediately be recognized part of Armenia. "This is our demand. All the Armenians demand recognition of our rights and the people's constitutional power from February 18."
The blogger Izabella Abgaryan said that all Armenian citizens must be equal before the law.
"They want to know about our program and accuse us of being idle. If they want, we will tell them. We are here because, in contrast to them, we have pro-national aims, to build up our country, where law-breakers will be jailed," she said.
"We are here for Armenian citizens not to leave the country, where our language, culture and architectural monuments will be preserved as the cherish as the apple of our eye," Ms Abgaryan added.Alen Simonyan, Editor of the Ararat magazine, called on all of Armenia's opposition forces to unite."The term 'freedom' has gained currency in recent years. No one can grant it to us nor can anyone strip us of it," he said. Also, some people draw parallels between "revolution" and "Arab spring.""We should realize that it is a revolution of thinking, which is difficult to prevent," he said."We are entering a period of growing consciousness, and this process is developing day by day," he said.He called on the opposition forces to unite during the election of Yerevan mayor. "I am calling on all the ctizens to arrive at Freedom Square and prove that the opposition is not only 550,000, but the country's population at large," Mr Simonyan said.Raffi Hovanni sian intends to hold meetings in Armenia's regions on March 6 and 7.The next rally in Yerevan's Freedom Square is scheduled for March 8. Heritage party Vice-Chairman Styopa Safaryan spoke of Mr Hovannisian's further steps."All those abusing our allegedly not having further steps want to divert our attention from what we did on Feb 18. We did not stage a hunger-strike or a sit-in, but we won. We shattered the criminal and oligarchic system," he said. The result was Serzh Sargsyan's canceling his rally in Freedom Square – because people did not allow him.In conclusion, Raffi Hovannisian said that, on May 5, the day of municipal elections in Yerevan, people will come to power in Armenia's capital.”But April 9 is before May 5. Armenia's Constitutional Court has the last chance until April 9. Before that, March 10 will see one more stage of our struggle. This is a long chain, and we must support each other. We must win a common victory," Mr Hovannisian said. He intends to hold a meeting in on March 8. "I would like to see our women – mothers and sisters – in Freedom Square. You know I do not believe the institute of First Lady. No such concept any longer. But Armenuhi Hovannisian [Raffi Hovannisian's wife] will deliver a speech for you for the first time," he said.    Read more... (653 words)

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