Tweet
Agence France Presse
June 30, 2011 Thursday 5:48 PM GMT
Armenia protesters set deadline for president
YEREVAN, June 30 2011
Around 4,000 opposition supporters rallied in the Armenian capital on
Thursday, vowing to force the ex-Soviet state's leader to step down
unless he fulfils their demands within two months.
"We give the authorities a two-month deadline," the leader of the
Armenian National Congress opposition bloc and the country's former
president Levon Ter-Petrosian told the rally.
"If the authorities do not start dialogue before the start of
September, that will leave us with only one demand," Ter-Petrosian
said.
But turnout at the rally was smaller than at previous demonstrations
this year, after a series of concessions offered by the authorities
led by President Serzh Sarkisian.
Sarkisian's administration has already fulfilled demands to allow
opposition rallies in a previously forbidden central square and has
released activists jailed for involvement in clashes after disputed
presidential elections in 2008 that left 10 people dead.
The Armenian leader this month also touted dialogue aimed at
preventing what he called "dangerous" situations -- a reference to the
violence in 2008 -- but has refused to hold early elections as
Ter-Petrosian has demanded.
Other speakers at the rally threatened an Arab-style popular uprising,
although the opposition bloc has not attempted this year to stage
round-the-clock protests as it did in 2008.
Parliamentary elections are due next year in Armenia and some analysts
have accused the opposition of pre-poll electioneering.
Armenia has gone through political and military turmoil since
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, with a series of disputed
votes and a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the region of
Nagorny Karabakh.
Since the Karabakh war in the 1990s, Armenia has suffered economically
because of closed borders with Azerbaijan and another neighbour
Turkey, which strongly objects to Yerevan's campaign to have the World
War I-era mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire recognised
as genocide.
mkh-emc/pvh
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
June 30, 2011 Thursday 5:48 PM GMT
Armenia protesters set deadline for president
YEREVAN, June 30 2011
Around 4,000 opposition supporters rallied in the Armenian capital on
Thursday, vowing to force the ex-Soviet state's leader to step down
unless he fulfils their demands within two months.
"We give the authorities a two-month deadline," the leader of the
Armenian National Congress opposition bloc and the country's former
president Levon Ter-Petrosian told the rally.
"If the authorities do not start dialogue before the start of
September, that will leave us with only one demand," Ter-Petrosian
said.
But turnout at the rally was smaller than at previous demonstrations
this year, after a series of concessions offered by the authorities
led by President Serzh Sarkisian.
Sarkisian's administration has already fulfilled demands to allow
opposition rallies in a previously forbidden central square and has
released activists jailed for involvement in clashes after disputed
presidential elections in 2008 that left 10 people dead.
The Armenian leader this month also touted dialogue aimed at
preventing what he called "dangerous" situations -- a reference to the
violence in 2008 -- but has refused to hold early elections as
Ter-Petrosian has demanded.
Other speakers at the rally threatened an Arab-style popular uprising,
although the opposition bloc has not attempted this year to stage
round-the-clock protests as it did in 2008.
Parliamentary elections are due next year in Armenia and some analysts
have accused the opposition of pre-poll electioneering.
Armenia has gone through political and military turmoil since
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, with a series of disputed
votes and a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the region of
Nagorny Karabakh.
Since the Karabakh war in the 1990s, Armenia has suffered economically
because of closed borders with Azerbaijan and another neighbour
Turkey, which strongly objects to Yerevan's campaign to have the World
War I-era mass killings of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire recognised
as genocide.
mkh-emc/pvh
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress