Thursday, December 11, 2008

New Eyewitness reports March 1-2: Aram and Anna Part 1

I've received a verbatim (voluntary) transcription (including translation where necessary) of two people discussing what they experienced during the March 1-2 time. What I know about this transcription is that it is literal, the transcriber asks a couple of questions for clarification but otherwise it is a frank conversation between two people, and that it is long - I will publish it in many parts. Also, all names, and some parts of the city not key to the account have been changed. It is one of the most detailed accounts I've seen, especially in English.

Part 1

Aram: Before the elections, Levon Ter Petrosyan's last announcement was that on February 20th, we are going to gather, to celebrate our victory. And so, on the 20th, the meeting was going to be at 3pm. People started to gather…

Anna: The roads from the village were closed…

Aram: That day was a regular day, but it felt like a holiday. The meeting was at 3pm, but no one felt like going to work, no one was at work. So slowly everyone started to gather at the Madenataran. At 3 o'clock, people were there, the police were there, too. Among the people there was talk that the roads were closed…

Anna: The marshuts were stopped too…

Aram: At 3 o'clock people were gathered on the sidewalks on the way to the Madenataran...

click here to see all of Part 1

3 comments:

Armen Filadelfiatsi said...

This is great. I'm looking forward to the rest of the installments. These first-hand accounts of 3/1 from a plurality of perspectives hold an attraction that is difficult to explain. Thanks, Tzitzernak.

Anonymous said...

Thanks Tzitzernak, this is very interesting, especially in terms of direct account ... how it was on the ground.

Looking forward to the next parts. BTW, how many are there in total?

tzitzernak2 said...

Hi Garen - How many parts there are depends on how many more I get and how the pieces are broken up at posting. I think probably between 6 and 10.