Armenian opposition decisive to topple government

Mediamax news agency
15 Apr 04

YEREVAN

“The Armenian opposition is not broken and will consistently struggle
for a change of power in the country,” Stepan Demirchyan, leader of
the opposition Justice bloc and People’s Party of Armenia, stated in
Yerevan today.

As Mediamax news agency reports, speaking at a briefing in the
Armenian National Assembly today, Stepan Demirchyan said that the
opposition can open up a dialogue with the authorities only after
those who used force against the peaceful protesters in Marshal
Bagramyan Avenue and those who took part in the falsification of the
presidential elections in 2003 are brought to book.

“Everything that is going on today is a continuation of the
presidential elections during which the police were also used as a
tool for suppressing the opposition,” Stepan Demirchyan stated.

A member of the political council of the Republic Party, Armenian
ex-prime minister, Aram Sarkisyan, stated today that “Robert Kocharyan
has never offered us a dialogue”. He said that if before the police
dispersed the rally on the night of 12-13 April, 90 per cent of our
country’s population were “in favour of the president’s resignation,
today this indicator has reached to 99 per cent”.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan stated on 14 April that he regards
it as unacceptable if these statements about readiness for dialogue
resemble an ultimatum.

The head of the OSCE office in Armenia, Vladimir Pryakhin, called on
the representatives of the Armenian opposition “to be more restrained,
more moderate and ready for constructive negotiations with the
opposite side”. In his interview to the Yerevan newspaper Golos
Armenii today, Vladimir Pryakhin stated:

“Unfortunately, the leaders of the opposition are refusing any
political dialogue. In this situation, this position is not convincing
enough for me”.