SARKISIAN OFFERS OLIVE BRANCH TO OPPOSITION
By Ruzanna Khachatrian and Ruzanna Stepanian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Nov 13 2007

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian sought on Tuesday to lower the
temperature in his war of words with Armenia’s former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian, who is increasingly emerging as his main challenger
in the upcoming presidential election.

Ter-Petrosian, meanwhile, claimed that the Armenian authorities have
stepped up the harassment of his supporters in an effort to disrupt
his next rally in Yerevan scheduled for Friday.

"Let us not get petty and squander our resources in debates on the
mistakes and omissions of the past," Sarkisian said in a speech
in parliament. "Let us debate and cooperate on issues relating to
the future."

The remarks, clearly addressed to Ter-Petrosian, came just three days
after Sarkisian effectively kicked off his presidential campaign with
strong verbal attacks on the ex-president. He said Ter-Petrosian must
"repent and apologize to the Armenian people" for his past failings and
warned the latter against changing the country’s existing political
order.

The attack, launched at a congress of the governing Republican Party
(HHK), was Sarkisian’s first public response to Ter-Petrosian’s harsh
criticism of Armenia’s "corrupt and criminal" leadership. The bitter
recriminations set the stage for a fraught clash between the two
rival camps in the presidential ballot slated for February 19.

The Armenian premier, who held key security positions in the
Ter-Petrosian administration from 1993-1998, now appears keen to
defuse the mounting political tensions, promising to be forgiving
towards his political opponents.

Presenting his cabinet’s draft budget for next year to the National
Assembly, he said: "In the next five years, the government’s response
to our opponents will be the following: A more single-minded work, the
formation of an atmosphere of solidarity and cooperation, magnanimity,
mutual love and respect."

The Ter-Petrosian camp sees no such tolerance at the moment, however.

In a joint statement printed by several pro-opposition newspapers
on Tuesday, Ter-Petrosian and one of his top opposition allies,
Hanrapetutyun party leader, Aram Sarkisian, said the authorities are
illegally trying to minimize attendance at the Friday rally. They
urged supporters to document and report all instances of government
"repression" against them.

"Let no policeman, tax inspector, local government official or crime
figure doubt that they will think criminal liability in four months
from now," the statement said. "The authorities’ frantic efforts
to impede the rally show that the Kocharian-Serzh regime is scared
of nothing other than speech. One is scared of speech only when it
is true."

The Ter-Petrosian camp says in particular that the authorities are
trying to prevent it from spreading word of the upcoming rally in
the city’s Liberty Square. Two youth activists of a small opposition
party aligned with the ex-president claimed to have been detained
on Monday night while posting leaflets urging Armenians to "reject"
Serzh Sarkisian. One of them, Narek Galstian, told RFE/RL that they
were set free three hours later after proving a written explanation
of their actions.