ITAR-TASS News Agency
TASS
April 8, 2004 Thursday

Armenia govt has enough legal means to curb extremism

By Tigran Liloyan

YEREVAN

The Armenian government has enough legal means to curb political
extremism in Armenia, President Robert Kocharyan said in an interview
to Armenian public television on Thursday.

“The opposition must be careful or else its actions can boomerang on
it,” the president warned. He believes people will not tolerate
provocations. Wisdom will help them make the right appraisal of the
situation.

Kocharyan understands “the indignation of those who elected him when
they constantly hear members of the opposition say that the backbone
of power must be broken, that blood must be spilt”.

He called on his supporters “to show restraint and ignore
provocations of the opposition”. “People have elected me, so I should
fulfil their expectations, not the vice versa”. “People have
authorised me to use levers of power to ensure law and order in the
country,” the president said. He believes opposing one part of the
people to the other would be “the worst scenario”.

The president “gets the impression” he “became the target for the
competing leaders of the opposition”. He said the situation would
ease as soon as the opposition, the “aggressive political minority”,
names its leader.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress