BERLIN CELEBRATES DEMISE OF WALL

09.11.2009 [14:04]
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Baku, November 9 (AZERTAC). World leaders are joining thousands of people marking 20 years since the Berlin Wall`s fall, an event that paved the way for the end of the Cold War.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who grew up in East Germany, will lead the celebrations. Guests including ex-Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev will join her in walking across the first border crossing to open in 1989. The barrier was unexpectedly opened after weeks of pro-democracy protests.

Communist East Germany erected the 155km concrete wall in 1961 to encircle West Berlin and prevent citizens from fleeing into the capitalist enclave. More than 100 people are believed to have been killed at the Wall while trying to escape.

As part of festivities, some 1,000 giant foam dominoes - painted by young people - will be toppled along the former route of the Wall, to symbolise how communist governments in Eastern Europe fell one after another in 1989.

Among those invited to join Chancellor Merkel in Berlin are French President Nicolas Sarkozy, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

BERLIN CELEBRATES DEMISE OF WALL

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