YEREVAN (Azatutyun.am)—Hundreds of people protesting against the Armenian government’s decision to cede key border areas to Azerbaijan continued to march to Yerevan on Monday, with a senior clergyman leading them insisting that their campaign is gaining momentum.
Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan spoke of “unexpectedly great” popular support for the protest movement that began in Armenia’s northern Tavush province following the announcement of the territorial concessions on April 19.
The marching protesters, followed by a long procession of slowly moving cars, are due to reach Yerevan on Thursday to press their demands for an immediate halt to the land handover which they believe would create grave security risks for not only Tavush but the country as a whole. T
hey have attracted strong support from a wide range of opposition groups as well as public figures critical of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Galstanyan declined to shed light on the planned actions in Yerevan when he spoke to RFE/RL’s Armenian Service during the march. Nor would he say whether he and other protest leaders will also be demanding Pashinyan’s resignation.
“The whole essence, basis of our movement is spiritual,” he said. “The truth must defeat lies in our country. That’s enough. As for the cost and the price of that, we’ll see.”
The archbishop discreetly backed by the Armenian Apostolic Church also stressed that he has no political ambitions.
Pashinyan’s political allies, who have fiercely criticized and attacked Galstanyan for the last two weeks, claimed to be unfazed by the impending antigovernment protests in the Armenian capital. One of them, parliament speaker Alen Simonian, said the protesters stand no chance of toppling the country’s government.
The outspoken archbishop and his supporters began marching on Saturday to Yerevan from a the Kirants village in the northern Tavush province that has been the epicenter of two-week protests against the Armenian government’s territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.
Galstanyan, who has emerged as the top leader of the protests, said they are taking their campaign to the streets of the capital to try to scuttle the handover of border areas adjacent to the village of Kirants and nearby Tavush communities. Many local residents have been up in arms against it, citing grave security concerns.
“‘The Tavush for the Homeland’ movement has decided that the people must just go to Yerevan … to demand that this process here and elsewhere be stopped,” Galstanyan said in Kirants before staring the 160-kilometer (almost 100 miles) journey to Yerevan.
The decision was announced two days after police cracked down on Kirants protesters who tried to stop authorities from clearing an adjacent area of landmines and make other preparations for its handover to Azerbaijan. The police presence in and around the village remained strong after the crackdown.
Galstanyan, who heads the Tavush diocese of the Armenian Apostolic Church, said the protesters led by him plan to reach Yerevan on May 9. He gave no details of their actions planned there. His announcement drew statements of support from Yerevan-based opposition politicians and public figures who pledged to join the campaign.
The marching protesters, among them at least two opposition lawmakers, spent their first night in Tavush’s medieval Haghartsin monastery. They resumed their march to the capital after attending a Sunday mass there in the morning.
“This march is going to give us one thing: honor and homeland,” Galstanyan told the crowd of more than 100 people right after the liturgy. He urged Armenia’s leaders to “behave well,” “repent” and “stay away from all kinds of sins.”
