Feb 22, 2013 - in Pictures

Here is a series of panaromics taken from Azatutyan Hraparak today in order of time taken - its about 180 degrees view flattened - the farthest left is almost pointing at the Tumanyan and Teryan intersection, and far R is the stage in front of Opera - times are on top:

4:47 pm

4:47 pm

4:58 pm

5:06pm

5:13pm

5:36 pm

5:52pm

6:04pm

6:18pm

6:56

6:59pm

Also note that you cant tell just how dense things are way in the middle there.  Here are some more pics:

The Ambulance

My beloved Yerevan cops

Kapan

A Barely Visible Nikol Pashinyan (HAK) Speaking

A Barely Visible Zaruhi Postanjyan (Zh) Speaking

A Barely Visible Raffi Hovannisian Speaking, next to him are Armen Rustamyan (ARF) and Armen Martirosyan (Zh)

Pics, Videos and How Many People Fit in Azatutyan Hraparak

I've uploaded some new vides onto my Youtube account - youtube.com/tzitzernak from recent days in Yerevan. I'll upload more photos soon, some are up via my twitter account, predictably twitter.com/tzitzernak.

The question of how many people were there came up, as usual. Here is a calculation I did in the past for a friend.  Liberty Square/Azatutyan Hraparak (AH) was not full by any means, and it was probably on average a medium packed audience.  Here it is:

 I used http://www.mapdevelopers.com/area_finder.php to estimate (by outlining) the square meters of AH. I did it three times to get the best estimate. I went horizontally out from the flat part of the cement stage, and through to the benches and walkways. These obviously will make a difference. I felt this was among the most accurate ways of doing the calculation.

The three meters square I got were: 6927, 6929, and 6994.

A professor in Berkley did the calculations on numbers of people in a protest based on how tightly packed they were, during the Vietnam War protests in the US (I used it in a post several years ago: http://tzitzernak2.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-many-people-came-and-does-it-matter.html)

Loosely packed individuals: 1person/.93 meters squared

   based on that, with the three calculations for square meters/surface area above, the number of peopel who would fit in AH, loose packed are: 7448, 7450, 7520

Tightly Packed individuals: 1 person/.42 meters squared

    based on that, the number of people who fit are: 16492, 16497, 16652

Very Tightly Packed individuals = 1 person/.23 square meters

    based on that: 30117, 30126, 30408 people fit

So, with loosely to medium, we'd be calculating somewhere between 7,500 to 16,500 - IF the whole thing were packed, which it wasn't.  Maybe 60% full? So 4,500-9,900 - which I think is likely an overestimate from pictures and videos.  But at least its a more consistent approach.

Some favorite pics

There are a ton of pictures floating around the web from the recently started around the clock demonstrations started by HAK, right after the September 30 demonstration. A friend sent me some more photos...

These I love because they highlight the absurdity - the regime is so desperate to suppress any- and everything, that they've shut down the cafes on Liberty Square, including the bathrooms, so peaceful protesters can't use the bathrooms. I'd be unbelievably upset if i were one of those cafe owners or workers - that's good business they're shutting down!
These cafes would usually be pretty packed on the weekend, but they were shut down, and look quite deserted...

















My friend also sent me this one below, which i think is likely my favorite so far, because of the explanatory caption that came with it:

Apparently, the man with the beard had witnessed the events of March 1-2, 2008, and had vowed to keep his beard until justice was done.












A close second, though, is this picture of my good friend, Bazaz, thanks to epress: