Armenian opposition set to overthrow incumbent president in April
Noyan Tapan news agency
17 Mar 04
YEREVAN
Some members of Armenia’s Justice and National Unity opposition
factions, which are boycotting the parliament’s work, made rather
harshly-worded statements in the National Assembly on 16 March.
The secretary of the Justice faction, Viktor Dallakyan, said the
following: “As a result of the mounting nationwide movement in the
republic, in April we will overthrow the regime of [Armenian President
Robert] Kocharyan who has repeatedly violated the constitution and has
usurped power.”
According to a member of the same faction, Vardan Lazarian, the
Justice bloc, realizing responsibility for an organized and painless
change of power, has set up a coordinating centre. Having analysed the
current situation, the centre prepared a programme and submitted it to
the bloc for approval. It envisages meetings with the public. The MP
said that although the local authorities are doing everything in their
power to hamper the opposition’s meetings with the people, the
meetings are very popular.
According to another member of the faction, Shavarsh Kocharyan,
numerous meetings in different residential settlements have shown that
“people hate the illegitimate president and demand decisive steps”. He
said that the only way to establish legitimate authorities without any
shocks is to conduct a referendum on a vote of confidence, but that is
quite unlikely to happen because Robert Kocharyan and his entourage
are giving an unrealistic assessment of the situation in the country.
Members of the Justice faction, Aram Sarkisyan and Grigor Arutyunyan,
and a representative of the National Unity faction, Amayak Ovanesyan,
also made statements against the incumbent authorities.