Armenian coalition parties slam opposition’s calls for new leader

Mediamax news agency
18 Mar 04

YEREVAN

Representatives of the ruling coalition parties are sceptical about
the intention of the opposition to start a protest action to demand
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s resignation.

The leader of the Republican Party’s parliamentary faction, Galust
Saakyan, described this initiative of the opposition as “ridiculous
and far from politics”. He said that the “people are not in a
revolutionary mood”. The MP described as inadmissible any action of
the opposition which could run counter to the constitution, noting
that “things will not reach open confrontation”.

The secretary of the faction of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
– Dashnaktsutyun, Grayr Karapetyan, expressed his concern that “the
opposition is aggravating the situation” and said that “our party will
do its best not to allow confrontation in society”.

A representative of the Orinats Yerkir [Law-Governed Country Party]
parliamentary faction, Mger Shakhgeldyan, said that “many countries of
the world have given up revolutionary approaches to a change of power
as this yields no good results”.