London-Armenian Genocide Memorial March

Unzipped posts video, photographs and an account of the annual march staged in London by the Armenian community of Great Britain to remember the victims of the 1915 Armenian Genocide. Although the march was held yesterday, the blog says that it reminded him of the annual 24 April commemoration in Yerevan.

There were many young people among marchers. People were carrying flowers reminiscent to the way we do it in Yerevan. Overall, the march was better organised than it was last year.

Pouring rain at the beginning was annoying, but it did not affect people’s mood, although it perhaps affected the number of people participating in the march, as well as onlookers in the streets. However, on the whole, march looked impressive and very appropriate for the occasion.

As to the organisational aspects, I do not think Sunday is a particularly good choice for actions aimed also at attracting public attention to the cause. In addition, most of the time along the route which was designated to us we were marching via mainly deserted streets, except when we reached Parliament sq. I understand, it is not just in the hands of organisers, and Metropolitan police perhaps did its main bit for own convenience by allocating us not busy and not traffic heavy (including pedestrian) route. However, during previous years it was possible to get permission for more appropriate route starting at Marble Arch. I think organisers should try getting it back.