Published since 1951
Published on March 17, 2008
TER-PETROSIAN, ALLIES DISCUSS NEXT STEPS
- Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian and his opposition allies remaining at large have met to discuss their further steps, saying that they will continue to strive for regime change in Armenia by “legal and democratic means.” Ter-Petrosian’s office said participants of the weekend meeting, apparently the first since the violent post-election unrest in Yerevan, “reaffirmed their determination to fight against the kleptocratic system.” “All leaders of the [pro-Ter-Petrosian opposition] parties noted that the public is determined to get rid of the current authorities by legal and democratic means,” it said in a short statement. No further details were reported. Ter-Petrosian said last week that he will continue to challenge the official results of Armenia’s disputed presidential election and plans to resume demonstrations in the capital after the lifting of the state of emergency expected. His representatives had already notified the Yerevan mayor’s office of their intention to hold a rally on March 21, the day after the anticipated end of emergency rule. However, municipal authorities banned the planned gathering, saying that it would pose a “serious threat to the life and health of citizens.” In a written statement, an aide to Mayor Yervand Zakharian also argued that the last opposition rally held on March 1 was marred by deadly clashes between Ter-Petrosian supporters and riot police. More than one hundred opposition leaders and activists have been arrested on charges mainly stemming from those clashes which the Armenian authorities call a coup attempt. Dozens of others have gone into hiding. Many of the detained and fugitive oppositionists are senior members of opposition parties supporting Ter-Petrosian, notably the Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh) and Hanrapetutyun (Republic). According to Ter-Petrosian’s office, most members of the two parties’ governing boards are now in jail or on the run. An office spokesman, Armen Khachatrian, told RFE/RL on Monday that dozens of other, less known, opposition activists in Yerevan and other parts of the country have been taken to police stations in recent days. He said police officers are trying to force them to give incriminating testimony against opposition leaders and to promise not to participate in further Ter-Petrosian rallies. He said the interrogations are illegal because none of the activists received written summonses from the police and other law-enforcement agencies. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian and his ally Artur Baghdasarian, who finished third in the February 19 election, on Monday again defended the use of force against Ter-Petrosian supporters 1 and blamed the former president for the resulting casualties. “He radicalized a part of the opposition and guided it into a standoff with the state, which led to the March 1 riots in which armed demonstrators confronted police,” they said in a joint article published by “The Washington Post.” “Despite recent events, our country is still moving forward,” wrote Sarkisian and Baghdasarian. “The international community has everything to gain through supporting a stable, transparent and elected government in Armenia.” However, the Zharangutyun party of Raffi Hovannisian, the only opposition group represented in Armenia’s parliament, had a completely different take on the post-election situation in the country, saying that “the schism between the Armenian people and its government continues to expand.” In a statement, Zharangutyun, which endorsed Ter-Petrosian’s presidential bid, said that the presidential ballot was fraudulent and that Armenians had a legitimate right to dispute its official results in the streets. It said the March 1 bloodshed resulted from the break-up of non-stop protests in Yerevan’s Liberty Square staged by the Ter-Petrosian camp. “The unconscionability displayed on February 19 and the brutality used to protect it on March 1 remain unresolved issues,” said the statement. “No state of emergency, accompanied as it is by an aggressive, one-sided ‘public information’ vertical which deepens the public divide rather than healing it, will succeed in securing the collective amnesia of state and society.” (Photolur photo)
Discussion
Albert wrote:
Baikar Baikar michev verch
ARSHAK-10 wrote:
"Opposition" is very good, if their HIDDEN intentions are also good and healthy. Every country needs it, but it must not turn into...cancer... and start decaying specialy a newly formed republic like ours. Cause if any opposition wins, it will have IT'S OWN OPPOSITION... so it's a constant cycle of not liking each other and so "Paykar minchev verch" will go... "Minchev verch". "Minchev OUR"??? Hope not "Minchev" foreigners come and occupy our homeland again and we start our centuries old "CRY" again, about having "Azadutyun"... I think Kazaz Artin was right...- Albert wrote:
- ARSHAK-10
"Opposition" is very good, if their HIDDEN intentions are also good and healthy. Every country needs it, but it must not turn into...cancer... and start decaying specialy a newly formed republic like ours. Cause if any opposition wins, it will have IT'S OWN OPPOSITION... so it's a constant cycle of not liking each other and so "Paykar minchev verch" will go... "Minchev verch". "Minchev OUR"??? Hope not "Minchev" foreigners come and occupy our homeland again and we start our centuries old "CRY" again, about having "Azadutyun"... I think Kazaz Artin was right...
I understand your concern. But, we also know that when there is no alternation in power it always leads to corrupt and criminal regime. So, opposition is crucial.
I am neither for LTP nor Robert and Serj. They have all proved to be thiefs. That is, I think, clear for everyone in the World.
Hatred: political oppositions hate each other. It is normal. But this should not put violence in the streets or turn the country into a mess.
We all know, that Serj had not won if he had not frauded. Everone agreed that there would have been a run-off and he would have lost. Then LTP would have been president. That's ok. If he started stealing and screwign around again then we would loose the next elections in 4 years time. That would give the chance to someone else to try to win etc...
This dynamisms is crucial for the country. It is the only one which will bring prosperity.
When a power stays there for so many years, they become corrupt, they kill, they lie and they fill their pockets.
As to your future concerns: those things have already happened:
1. 1/3 of Armenia's population has left the country
2. Armenia stratgic infrastructure is sold to Russie: Energy production, grid, transport, large productin units such as aluminium, the telecom sector.
Thanks you Robert and Serj,
It needs to change. - ARSHAK-10
MIHRAN wrote:- ARSHAK-10
"Opposition" is very good, if their HIDDEN intentions are also good and healthy. Every country needs it, but it must not turn into...cancer... and start decaying specialy a newly formed republic like ours. Cause if any opposition wins, it will have IT'S OWN OPPOSITION... so it's a constant cycle of not liking each other and so "Paykar minchev verch" will go... "Minchev verch". "Minchev OUR"??? Hope not "Minchev" foreigners come and occupy our homeland again and we start our centuries old "CRY" again, about having "Azadutyun"... I think Kazaz Artin was right...
ARSHAK
I HOPE THAT PEOPLE WILL COME TO THEIR SENSES EVENTUALLY (BAIKAR)HAS MANY DIFFERENT FACETS FEEDOM OF SPEACH IS TO BE RESPECTED.IF ALL THAT WILL TOTAL TO ANARCHISM NOTHING BECOMES DEMOCRATIC. I 100% APRECIATE YOUR POINT OF VIEWS.
MIHRAN.- ARSHAK-10
- Albert wrote:
- MIHRAN
ARSHAK
I HOPE THAT PEOPLE WILL COME TO THEIR SENSES EVENTUALLY (BAIKAR)HAS MANY DIFFERENT FACETS FEEDOM OF SPEACH IS TO BE RESPECTED.IF ALL THAT WILL TOTAL TO ANARCHISM NOTHING BECOMES DEMOCRATIC. I 100% APRECIATE YOUR POINT OF VIEWS.
MIHRAN.
Mihran djan, just like you, my heart aches for the people of Armenia.
They have suffered so much. Enough is enough.
Let them live and prosper. What else can we hope?
If I knew Serj and Robert could do it I would say 'yes'.
The sad fact is: we don't have a leader for the moment. Our nation is taken hostage by a bunch of low-grade hooligans (Robert and Serj). - MIHRAN
129 days before | 
Headlines for March 17, 2008
TER-PETROSIAN, ALLIES DISCUSS NEXT STEPS
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President Robert Kocharian defended through a spokesman on Monday his administration’s continuing refusal to allow Armenia’s leading independent and pro-opposition newspapers and online publications to ...SAUDI ROYALS ON FIRST-EVER TRIP TO ARMENIA
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© AUA
Today in Armenian history- 1863 The Sultan confirms the shortened version of the National Constitution of Western Armenians.
- 1863 Turkish government approves the 1860 05 24 "National Constitution" with severe restrictions and censorship.
- 1865 Birth of Manuk Abeghyan (linguist) in Astapat, Nakhichevan (Armenia). He died in 1944.
- 1872 Birth of Nathan Amirkhanian (Knyazev), composer, conductor, organist and teacher. He was a Director of the Odessa Opera and also organized Armenian Choirs in Baku.
- 1898 Russia's committee of Ministries decides to give Armenian school properties to the state authorities.
- 1922 Birth in Alexandropol (Gyoomree) of Sergey Hambardzoomian, mechanics scholar and academician. He was Vice-President of the Armenian Academy of Science, and Rector of Yerevan State University.
- 1962 Khojivank's Cemetery of Tbilisi, which had long since become a park by this time, was now to be called the Armenian Pantheon of Culture. Thirty four remains (Toomanian, Aghayan, Mooratsan, Jivany, Akhverdian, Oganezashvily and others) lie here. The first to be interred was the Great Komitas, who had died in a Paris asylum - after losing his mind on receivng the news of the 1915 Genocide.
- 1963 Sixth Election of the Armenian SSR's Supreme Soviet.
- 1975 Birth of Alexander Jivelegov, in New Nakhitshevan (Rostov, Russia). He was a historian, art and literature critic, translator, and corresponding member of the Armenian Academy of Science.
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