Protests continue despite president's power price pledge

Around 10,000 protesters rallied in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Sunday night defying police threats to forcefully break up the demonstration against the government's controversial move to hike electricity prices.

Protesters, who for a second week blocked the capital Yerevan's main thoroughfare, refused to disperse on Sunday. This was despite a police ultimatum and President Serzh Sarkisian's promise that the government would shoulder the burden of a 16-percent hike in electricity prices.

Protest organizer Vaghinak Shushanian appealed to the demonstrators to end their standoff with police in response to a promise by Sarkisian to suspend the rate hike pending an audit of the Russian-owned power company.

Late in the evening, some 2,000 protesters opted to move to nearby Liberty Square to avoid confrontation with the police, but 8,000 vowed to stay on Bagramyan Avenue.

Senior police officer Valery Osipyan said that many residents had complained about the noise and rubbish on the streets. He also claimed there were "armed provocateurs" among the protesters.

Chanting "Armenia! Armenia!" and "No to robbery," protesters vowed to keep pressurizing the government until their demands were met.

"We will stay until we win. We don't believe in the president's bluff," said one of the protesters, 21-year-old student Hrayr Gevorkyan.

"We will continue our fight. We don't trust in our authorities," said retiree Asya Gasparyan.

Russian news agency TASS quoted Armenian Prime Minister Ovik Abramyan as saying that the protests were not solely aimed at reversing the electricity price hike.

"Today, forces whose real goal is not the problem of the electricity tariff increase but the instigation of instability in the country and prompting our citizens towards confrontation appeared," he said.

AFP - AP

(China Daily 06/30/2015 page11)