Armenian ruling coalition has no regrets about condemning rally incident
Arminfo
3 May 05
Yerevan, 3 May: The Armenian ruling coalition does not regret having
signed the statement of 34 political forces that condemned the Sevan
incident at the rally of the New Times Party.
Commenting on the statement of Armenian President Robert Kocharyan
that by signing the statement the ruling coalition, unaware of the real
picture of the Sevan incident, put itself in an awkward situation, the
speaker of the Armenian National Assembly and the head of the Orinats
Yerkir [Law-Governed Country] Party, Artur Bagdasaryan, said today:
“Orinats Yerkir believes that it was right to sign the statement of 34
political forces. In the statement, we only condemned the participation
of criminal elements in political processes, and the Armenian president
himself said that the essence of the statement was acceptable to him.”
In any case, it is necessary to wait till the end of the investigation.
“As a result of the preliminary investigation, an interesting situation
has already taken shape with regards to incident,” Bagdasaryan said.
The deputy speaker of the Armenian National Assembly and the deputy
chairman of the Republican Party, Tigran Torosyan, who personally
signed this statement, said that by signing it he fulfilled the
decision of his party.
“By signing the statement, the Republican Party did not put itself
in an awkward situation at all. We do not see any problem in having
signed the statement and do not regret having done so. In fact,
the president himself said that he agrees with the essence of the
document and this is the most important thing,” Torosyan said.
The head of the parliamentary faction of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation – Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD], Levon Lazarian, said that by
signing the statement the ARFD only condemned the participation of
criminal elements in political processes, and there is nothing wrong
about that.
[Passage omitted: known details about the rally by the New Times
Party on 20 April in Sevan]