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TER-PETROSIAN STILL READY TO RESUME TALKS WITH GOVERNMENT
Emil Danielyan
Armenialiberty.org
Sept 9 2011
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) is still ready to resume
negotiations with the government if one of its activists arrested
last month is released "in the coming days," the top leader of the
opposition alliance, Levon Ter-Petrosian, said late on Friday.
While reaffirming his pledges to force President Serzh Sarkisian to
call early national elections, Ter-Petrosian again spoke out against
the idea of an anti-government "revolution" favored by his most
radical supporters.
"If [Tigran] Arakelian is set free in the coming days, we will be
ready to return to the negotiation table," he told several thousand
supporters rallying in Yerevan's Liberty Square. "Or else, by keeping
the dialogue suspended, we will be compelled to talk to the authorities
in another language."
"By another language I mean not a revolution or uprising but the
forcing of pre-term presidential and parliamentary elections through
more frequent rallies and an utmost consolidation or mobilization of
the popular masses," he added.
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, 9Sept2011.
The HAK suspended its negotiations with Sarkisian's governing
coalition last month in protest against the authorities' refusal to
free Arakelian pending trial. The latter was detained along with
six other HAK activists after clashing with police in disputed
circumstances on August 9.
Speaking at the previous HAK rally held on August 2, Ter-Petrosian
gave the government until September to call fresh elections or face a
new wave of street protests. Sarkisian and other senior figures in his
three-party governing coalition have repeatedly rejected this demand.
"We are starting a whole campaign which will increasingly gain momentum
and, by making our public actions more frequent, bring our struggle to
a point where the regime will have to retreat and accept the people's
victory," Levon Zurabian, the HAK coordinator, told the protesters
on Friday.
But neither Zurabian nor Ter-Petrosian left indications that the
opposition movement is prepared for the kind of non-stop protests
that it staged following the February 2008 presidential election.
Ter-Petrosian noted only that the HAK is "not guided by the insane
idea of life-or-death struggle or the irresponsible slogan 'freedom
or death.'" He said the next HAK demonstration will be held on
September 23.
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24323910.html
Emil Danielyan
Armenialiberty.org
Sept 9 2011
The Armenian National Congress (HAK) is still ready to resume
negotiations with the government if one of its activists arrested
last month is released "in the coming days," the top leader of the
opposition alliance, Levon Ter-Petrosian, said late on Friday.
While reaffirming his pledges to force President Serzh Sarkisian to
call early national elections, Ter-Petrosian again spoke out against
the idea of an anti-government "revolution" favored by his most
radical supporters.
"If [Tigran] Arakelian is set free in the coming days, we will be
ready to return to the negotiation table," he told several thousand
supporters rallying in Yerevan's Liberty Square. "Or else, by keeping
the dialogue suspended, we will be compelled to talk to the authorities
in another language."
"By another language I mean not a revolution or uprising but the
forcing of pre-term presidential and parliamentary elections through
more frequent rallies and an utmost consolidation or mobilization of
the popular masses," he added.
Armenia - Opposition supporters demonstrate in Yerevan, 9Sept2011.
The HAK suspended its negotiations with Sarkisian's governing
coalition last month in protest against the authorities' refusal to
free Arakelian pending trial. The latter was detained along with
six other HAK activists after clashing with police in disputed
circumstances on August 9.
Speaking at the previous HAK rally held on August 2, Ter-Petrosian
gave the government until September to call fresh elections or face a
new wave of street protests. Sarkisian and other senior figures in his
three-party governing coalition have repeatedly rejected this demand.
"We are starting a whole campaign which will increasingly gain momentum
and, by making our public actions more frequent, bring our struggle to
a point where the regime will have to retreat and accept the people's
victory," Levon Zurabian, the HAK coordinator, told the protesters
on Friday.
But neither Zurabian nor Ter-Petrosian left indications that the
opposition movement is prepared for the kind of non-stop protests
that it staged following the February 2008 presidential election.
Ter-Petrosian noted only that the HAK is "not guided by the insane
idea of life-or-death struggle or the irresponsible slogan 'freedom
or death.'" He said the next HAK demonstration will be held on
September 23.
http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24323910.html