May

4

Back on the Stump: Oppositionists pack Government Hall to hear latest rally by Ter-Petrosyan

Filed Under ArmeniaNow Weekly 

Back on the Stump: Oppositionists pack Government Hall to hear latest rally by Ter-PetrosyanThe opposition movement led by former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan held a congress in a closely packed conference hall in the Government Building Friday. More than a thousand people had gathered outside in Melik-Adamyan Street while inside it was even difficult to find a place for standing.

Opposition leaders had long encountered problems in trying to find premises for holding the meeting. There was even some talk about a possible gathering in neighboring Georgia, but the newly appointed prime minister had magnanimously let the opposition have the premises, saying that the government’s conference hall was provided to all political forces on equal terms.

The Congress, which was called by the organizers “Movement Heralding National Awakening”, began its workings by observing a minute’s silence to pay tribute to the memory of at least ten people who died in post-election violence on March 1.

Speeches threaded out and held together with appeals to continue the movement and not lose heart every now and then were interrupted by passionate exclamations “Levon!” and “Struggle Till the End!”, and former foreign Minister Alexander Arzumanyan’s wife Melissa Brown, speaking on behalf of the wives of jailed oppositionists, said that they had been deprived of their husbands, however they “weren’t poor but were lucky to have hero husbands”.

Former president Levon Ter-Petrosyan delivered his first public speech since March 1 and typically it was long, divided into several parts – “Clash or Slaughter”, “Western attitude towards Armenian elections and the March 1 events”, “Split or Unification of Society” and “Immediate Tasks of the Nationwide Movement”.

Ter-Petrosyan qualified as a “slaughter” what was committed on March 1 and fingered the then “regime leader”, former president Robert Kocharyan as the main person who “orchestrated” it. He emphasized that “even though formally [incumbent president] Serzh Sargsyan has nothing to do with issuing the order, as president-elect he was obliged to prevent what happened.”

The ex-president described Kocharyan’s claims that police had been on an assignment to conduct a search in the tent camp of opposition protesters in the pre-dawn hours of March 1 as “unbecoming lies on the level of a traitor”.

“Had the police informed the protesters that they had come to Liberty Square only for a search, the pro-government media would have run that television footage a hundred times. Besides, no country has seen three or four thousand police go for a search,” Ter-Petrosyan said.

According to Ter-Petrosyan, snap presidential and parliamentary elections are the only way and option to alleviate the tensions existing between the society and government.

“But neither the authorities nor European organizations that oversee the process of Armenia’s democratization are yet ready for this option, and we need to provide the movement with a new organizational form and a new name,” said Ter-Petrosyan.

The former president suggested that the movement of more than two dozen political parties and organizations be named the Armenian National Congress, saying that eventually it might grow into a single political party playing “a permanent and decisive role” in all political events in Armenia, participating in elections at all levels with single candidates or common lists.

The former president also responded to the continuing discussion about a possible dialogue between the government and the opposition, saying that “not accepting the legitimacy of the regime that usurped power” they cannot but reckon with “the circumstance of their being a political factor” and “are ready for dialogue.”

“For this the authorities have to fulfill the demands of the April 17 resolution of the PACE,” Ter-Petrosyan said, adding that above all the authorities must release their jailed friends.

In his speech, Ter-Petrosyan spoke critically not only about the second and third presidents, but also about international structures, saying that the observers of the OSCE/Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights had their share of responsibility in what had happened.

“The observation mission of the OSCE/ODIHR legitimized the disgraceful presidential elections held in Armenia in conditions of widespread electoral fraud. Despite the fact that they register in detail that there were violations, violence, fraud, vote buying, ballot box stuffing, however note that it did not impact the outcome of the election.”

According to him, inspired by that statement, the Armenian authorities not only thwarted the vote recount process, but also “organized the March 1 bloody provocation” qualifying peaceful demonstrations as an attempt to usurp power.

By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow reporter
Source: http://www.armenianow.com

Permanent link:  http://www.armpress.com/armenianow/2008/05/04/1055/

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