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ARMENIAN PRESIDENT ASKS PEOPLE TO DISPLAY RESTRAINT AND RESPECT FOR LAW
YEREVAN, MARCH 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The situation in Yerevan is becoming
dangerous so the Armenian president as the guarantor of the
Constitution must make the respective decisions. This statement was
made at the conference called at midnight by the president of the RA
Robert Kocharian, who has declared a state of emergency in Yerevan.
According to him, unauthorized rallies had been held for 9 consecutive
days in Yerevan, and the contents and manner of these rallies
finally resulted in clashes with the police. "They did not obey a
lawful demand of the police - the demand to make a search as there
was serious information about arms and ammunition". Both sides had
injured persons during the clash. "The tolerance of the police during
the election campaign was probably misinterpreted by some candidates,
more precisely, by a candidate and his team and in fact the political
process related to the election is no longer a political process,"
the Armenian president said.
He underlined that the public order is being disturbed, demonstrators
exceeded all limits and today shots are fired at the police. "These
are those arms and grenades we spoke about and demonstrated on
television. We constantly made an accentuation on them in recent
weeks". According to the president, 8 policemen were injured during the
clash, the colonel of the regiment was wounded quite seriously. Damage
was done to state and private property. "You probably know what the
demostrators are doing: they are stealing cars and looting shops. All
of us know the names of the organizers who will be held accountable
by law," the president said, informing those present that he signed a
decree on emergency state, and the decree was signed when he learned
about those 8 injured.
The decree is aimed at protecting the constitutional order in Armenia
and ensuring the security of the population. "I appeal to the Armenian
people with the request to display restraint now, to perceive with
understanding the steps, which the authorities have to take, and to
respect the law. I also ask to assist the authorities with establishing
the order. This proceeds from our interests, interests of the Republic
of Armenia and each citizen," the president stated.
In response to the reporters' questions, R. Kocharian said that to
impose a curfew in a city with a population of one million may cause
inconvenience to citizens, and for this reason it was decided to limit
the state of emergency to the provisions stated in the decree. "We
have tried to cause the minimal inconvenience to citizens not connected
to those who organize and are involved in disorders".
In the words of R. Kocharian, "in the current situation when weapons
are being used against the police troops not armed with guns,
we have to use the army for establishing order. We are obliged to
ensure security of our citizens. I am sure that we are able to do
so". According to him, it was a situation when unarmed demonstrators
stand behind those who shoot - they appear from behind a car, fire
at soldiers and then hide behind a car and to fire at them would also
mean to have victims among unarmed persons. "The impression was that
they provoked fire to have more victims. We had information about arms
and ammunition and the statement the police made this morning was a
substantiated one. Seeing that the so-called national wave is fading
away without giving any results, Ter-Petrosian and his team decided
to instigate some actions (we did not know exactly what actions), but
what is going on today in Yerevan shows that such things were to take
place. Maybe this would have happened in Opera Square but the police
intervention has moved this process a bit away from the city center".
According to the president, maybe the disappointment was caused by
the fact that almost all the candidates had responded to the prime
minister's call for coalition cooperation and a serious political
process had began to form a coalition government in a broader format
that would be considered as a government of national accord. It
is quite possible that this fact caused anxiety to the team of
Ter-Petrosian and the anxiety resulted in such actions.
R. Kocharian said that among demonstrators were people who would
come to listen to their candidate for the ideological reasons, while
others, a lot of them, would come to rallies for other purposes: they
were aggressive, ready for everything, without any ideological basis,
easy to control in a bad sense - in terms of manipulation so it was
possible to instigate them and commit various provocations. "This is
what we have in Armenia, about which all of you wrote, all papers,
everybody in all analyses and television meetings said that to display
such intolerance and conduct such propaganda long is dangerous for the
country's stability, first of all, for people". There was an election
campaign, and we had a desire to provide equal opportunities to
everybody by law and various candidates used it for various purposes".
"In the current situation, the problem cannot be solved by talks,
in fact, some act against the authorities not by rallies but by
arms, shooting, we cannot become a country of mauserists so drastic
measures must be taken," the president stated, adding "although we had
information about it, but it seemed to us till the last moment that
this limit would not be exceeded, I say again that the impression was
that this coalition process caused anxiety to them and they made an
attempt to be more active. And those grenades, those arms found at
Opera Square this morning were only small part of their arms, these
arms were left by those arrested on the spot but the arms worked in
another place".
YEREVAN, MARCH 2, NOYAN TAPAN. The situation in Yerevan is becoming
dangerous so the Armenian president as the guarantor of the
Constitution must make the respective decisions. This statement was
made at the conference called at midnight by the president of the RA
Robert Kocharian, who has declared a state of emergency in Yerevan.
According to him, unauthorized rallies had been held for 9 consecutive
days in Yerevan, and the contents and manner of these rallies
finally resulted in clashes with the police. "They did not obey a
lawful demand of the police - the demand to make a search as there
was serious information about arms and ammunition". Both sides had
injured persons during the clash. "The tolerance of the police during
the election campaign was probably misinterpreted by some candidates,
more precisely, by a candidate and his team and in fact the political
process related to the election is no longer a political process,"
the Armenian president said.
He underlined that the public order is being disturbed, demonstrators
exceeded all limits and today shots are fired at the police. "These
are those arms and grenades we spoke about and demonstrated on
television. We constantly made an accentuation on them in recent
weeks". According to the president, 8 policemen were injured during the
clash, the colonel of the regiment was wounded quite seriously. Damage
was done to state and private property. "You probably know what the
demostrators are doing: they are stealing cars and looting shops. All
of us know the names of the organizers who will be held accountable
by law," the president said, informing those present that he signed a
decree on emergency state, and the decree was signed when he learned
about those 8 injured.
The decree is aimed at protecting the constitutional order in Armenia
and ensuring the security of the population. "I appeal to the Armenian
people with the request to display restraint now, to perceive with
understanding the steps, which the authorities have to take, and to
respect the law. I also ask to assist the authorities with establishing
the order. This proceeds from our interests, interests of the Republic
of Armenia and each citizen," the president stated.
In response to the reporters' questions, R. Kocharian said that to
impose a curfew in a city with a population of one million may cause
inconvenience to citizens, and for this reason it was decided to limit
the state of emergency to the provisions stated in the decree. "We
have tried to cause the minimal inconvenience to citizens not connected
to those who organize and are involved in disorders".
In the words of R. Kocharian, "in the current situation when weapons
are being used against the police troops not armed with guns,
we have to use the army for establishing order. We are obliged to
ensure security of our citizens. I am sure that we are able to do
so". According to him, it was a situation when unarmed demonstrators
stand behind those who shoot - they appear from behind a car, fire
at soldiers and then hide behind a car and to fire at them would also
mean to have victims among unarmed persons. "The impression was that
they provoked fire to have more victims. We had information about arms
and ammunition and the statement the police made this morning was a
substantiated one. Seeing that the so-called national wave is fading
away without giving any results, Ter-Petrosian and his team decided
to instigate some actions (we did not know exactly what actions), but
what is going on today in Yerevan shows that such things were to take
place. Maybe this would have happened in Opera Square but the police
intervention has moved this process a bit away from the city center".
According to the president, maybe the disappointment was caused by
the fact that almost all the candidates had responded to the prime
minister's call for coalition cooperation and a serious political
process had began to form a coalition government in a broader format
that would be considered as a government of national accord. It
is quite possible that this fact caused anxiety to the team of
Ter-Petrosian and the anxiety resulted in such actions.
R. Kocharian said that among demonstrators were people who would
come to listen to their candidate for the ideological reasons, while
others, a lot of them, would come to rallies for other purposes: they
were aggressive, ready for everything, without any ideological basis,
easy to control in a bad sense - in terms of manipulation so it was
possible to instigate them and commit various provocations. "This is
what we have in Armenia, about which all of you wrote, all papers,
everybody in all analyses and television meetings said that to display
such intolerance and conduct such propaganda long is dangerous for the
country's stability, first of all, for people". There was an election
campaign, and we had a desire to provide equal opportunities to
everybody by law and various candidates used it for various purposes".
"In the current situation, the problem cannot be solved by talks,
in fact, some act against the authorities not by rallies but by
arms, shooting, we cannot become a country of mauserists so drastic
measures must be taken," the president stated, adding "although we had
information about it, but it seemed to us till the last moment that
this limit would not be exceeded, I say again that the impression was
that this coalition process caused anxiety to them and they made an
attempt to be more active. And those grenades, those arms found at
Opera Square this morning were only small part of their arms, these
arms were left by those arrested on the spot but the arms worked in
another place".