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Agence France Presse
November 25, 2011 Friday 4:24 PM GMT
Armenian opposition rallies for president's impeachment
YEREVAN, Nov 25 2011
Around 3,000 Armenian opposition supporters rallied in the capital
Yerevan on Friday to demand the resignation and impeachment of
President Serzh Sarkisian.
"Serzh Sarkisian seized power by falsifying the results of elections,"
said a declaration by the Armenian National Congress opposition bloc
claiming legal grounds for impeachment, read out at the rally by the
alliance's coordinator, Levon Zurabian.
Complaining of alleged institutional corruption and democratic
failings in the impoverished ex-Soviet state, the bloc won several
concessions from the authorities after a series of larger rallies
earlier this year, but a week-long tent camp protest ended without
results last month.
Turnout at Friday's protest was significantly smaller than at previous
demonstrations amid freezing weather in Yerevan.
The opposition bloc's leader, former Armenian president Levon
Ter-Petrosian, repeated his demand for snap elections but also said
the alliance needed to win parliamentary seats at polls due year to
achieve its goals.
A governing coalition lawmaker said however that the bloc, which
currently has no parliamentary seats, was indulging in pre-election
propaganda after failing to oust the government.
"Now it is clear that none of the extra-parliamentary opposition's
predictions came true," lawmaker Eduard Sharmazanov told AFP.
Armenia has been through political and military turmoil since
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, with a series of disputed
elections and a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the region of
Nagorny Karabakh.
mkh-emc/co
November 25, 2011 Friday 4:24 PM GMT
Armenian opposition rallies for president's impeachment
YEREVAN, Nov 25 2011
Around 3,000 Armenian opposition supporters rallied in the capital
Yerevan on Friday to demand the resignation and impeachment of
President Serzh Sarkisian.
"Serzh Sarkisian seized power by falsifying the results of elections,"
said a declaration by the Armenian National Congress opposition bloc
claiming legal grounds for impeachment, read out at the rally by the
alliance's coordinator, Levon Zurabian.
Complaining of alleged institutional corruption and democratic
failings in the impoverished ex-Soviet state, the bloc won several
concessions from the authorities after a series of larger rallies
earlier this year, but a week-long tent camp protest ended without
results last month.
Turnout at Friday's protest was significantly smaller than at previous
demonstrations amid freezing weather in Yerevan.
The opposition bloc's leader, former Armenian president Levon
Ter-Petrosian, repeated his demand for snap elections but also said
the alliance needed to win parliamentary seats at polls due year to
achieve its goals.
A governing coalition lawmaker said however that the bloc, which
currently has no parliamentary seats, was indulging in pre-election
propaganda after failing to oust the government.
"Now it is clear that none of the extra-parliamentary opposition's
predictions came true," lawmaker Eduard Sharmazanov told AFP.
Armenia has been through political and military turmoil since
independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, with a series of disputed
elections and a war with neighbouring Azerbaijan over the region of
Nagorny Karabakh.
mkh-emc/co