Top MP urges Armenian authorities, opposition to call time out

Arminfo
15 Apr 04

YEREVAN

Given the current domestic political situation, the Armenian
authorities and opposition had better call a time out, the deputy
chairman of the Armenian National Assembly, Tigran Torosyan, told a
news conference at the discussion club of the Pakagits newspaper
today.

He said that it would be good to take a break at least until the
parliament finally adopts the law on demonstrations and marches. The
deputy speaker recalled that this law had already been adopted in its
first reading and that over 100 amendments had been made to the law
since the resolution of the Venice Commission of the Council of
Europe. Only the proposal on holding counter-demonstrations by
different political forces at the same time and in the same place was
declined. The opposition boycott in this regard is absolutely
irrelevant since this law protects the rights of the opposition in the
first place, Tigran Torosyan said.

Commenting on the domestic political situation on the whole, he said
that unfortunately, he had to say once again that the country’s
political field had not been fully formed yet and therefore, relations
between different political forces sometimes reach a point when the
law-enforcement agencies have to intervene.

“It is a pity that absolutely innocent people, including journalists,
often suffer,” the deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament said.

He believes that responsibility lies with all the political forces in
the country and that maximum effort has to be made to prevent this,
the deputy speaker said. He noted that if he had been in the shoes of
the opposition leaders, he would have tried to persuade people to
leave Bagramyan Avenue and postponed the demonstration for security
reasons, on seeing water cannons, barbed wire and lots of policemen
armed with shields and truncheons.