FROM THE PAN-NATIONAL MOVEMENT TO ARMENIAN NATIONAL CONGRESS

During the 2nd congress of the “pan-national movement”, held in the conference hall of the Government yesterday, the first President of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan made two lengthy speeches. His speech started with the estimation of the events of March 1. In his first public speech since the March 1 clashes in Yerevan between his supporters and security forces, Ter-Petrosyan also accused Western powers and organizations of betraying the cause of Armenia’s democratization with their largely positive assessment of last February’s “disgraceful” presidential election. “The whole responsibility of the man slaughter of March 1 is for Robert Kocharyan,” stated Ter-Petrosyan. Robert Kocharyan was the only official who could give an order to use force against and shoot at peaceful demonstrators,” said Ter-Petrosyan. “Although he is formally unconnected with the issuance of the order, Serzh Sargsyan, was obliged, as the de facto president-elect, to prevent Robert Kocharyan from taking that extreme step. The opposition leader went on to fault the European Union and the Council of Europe for failing to explicitly condemn the use of lethal force against supporters and to back up their demands for an end to the government crackdown on the Ter-Petrosyan-led opposition with punitive actions. Ter-Petrosyan claimed that the bloodshed was also made possible by Western observers’ preliminary conclusion that the Armenian presidential ballot was held “mostly in accordance” with democratic standards. “While continuing the principled and determined struggle against the anti-popular regime, we must do everything to avoid internal political upheavals and developments threatening the country’s stability,” he said in a 90-minute speech at a conference of some two dozen opposition groups that supported his presidential bid. As a first step of the action plan he offered to rename the pan-Armenian movement and call it Armenian National Congress.

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