Rally in Gyumri demands to remove Republicans from power

According to estimates of its participants, the rally of Nikol Pashinyan's supporters in Gyumri became the largest of all the opposition's actions ever held in the city. They urged Karen Karapetyan, the Acting Prime Minister of Armenia and other members of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) to abandon the power structures.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the yesterday's oppositional rally in Gyumri, the second largest city of Armenia, has brought together, according to organizers, an unprecedentedly large audience – over 10,000 people.

In the opinion of Ermine Mkrtchyan, a reporter of the Gyumri-based channel GALA TV, the rally of Nikol Pashinyan's supporters is different from all earlier actions in Gyumri both in the audience, and the atmosphere.

"People were really happy and didn't hide their pride to be there at the moment and support Nikol Pashinyan," Ms Mkrtchyan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She has added that the behaviour of the participants in the rally exhibited confidence in the success of the opposition. "People are sure of the victory; they all note that the first step has been made; the second one is to be made now – to force Karapetyan and the whole RPA team to resign too," she said.

Alexander Khachatryan, a participant of the rally and a master of the Armenian National Academy of Sciences, is sure that the number of people, who actively support Nikol Pashinyan, becomes larger day after day.

"I'm from Gyumri, but I'm studying in Yerevan and earlier took part in protest actions there. Today, I came to my native Gyumri together in a huge motor convoy. You can't imagine what was happening on the Yerevan-Gyumri highway; no one had ever seen this before. People blocked the road willing to see Pashinyan. He enjoys people's great support," Mr Khachatryan told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.