By Vera Martorosyan
Romanian ultras from Uniti Sub Tricolor (United under tricolor) and Camarzii fan movements were present at the 2018 World Cup qualifier Armenia vs. Romania. They arrived in Yerevan from Romania, bringing with them a banner dedicated to the Armenian Genocide, but the law enforcement authorities didn’t allow them to take the banner to the stadium.
The banner
We have come here on our cars. We are heading for Kazakhstan today, but already by plane, since the road from Armenia to Kazakhstan is not that convenient. We had brought with us a banner dedicated to the Armenian Genocide; it read “1.5 million crosses are shining in the sky. At least say "Say forgive us" someone should try .” The word ‘someone’ was written in the form of the Turkish crescent. This banner is made by our friends from Camarazii - group of christian-ortodox ultras fans, from several teams in Romania, and we united to support Romania together. They always have this kind of banners, because after our country, we fight for orthodoxy and christianity. We cannot forget the ottoman genocid against christians from the ottoman empire.
But we weren’t allowed to bring it to the stadium as if it were a political banner. We tried to hide it in our clothes but we didn’t manage to. During the match we also sang songs about the Genocide, thinking that the people would sing along, but then we realized that not everyone knew English. The idea of the banner belongs to the members of our fan movement. We opened the banner but already in the city center.
Protests during the match
We lit up flares and this os not a protest, this is how we show our passion. We don’t want our federation to be fined, but we are against many things happening in our football now. For instance, the quality of international football players. We want the child and youth football to develop. We often stage different protests.
Support to FAF
During the match we noticed the police try to take away a flag from the fans. We began to whistle and expressed our support to First Armenian Front (FAF). We have ourselves not once appeared in such problematic situations and support the FAF guys. We will wait for them in Bucharest. We are leaving Armenia with great impressions.
