FEBRUARY 16 RALLY OF LEVON TER-PETROSIAN MUCH MORE CROWDED THAN
PREVIOUS ONE

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 16, NOYAN TAPAN. A rally with the participation of
many thousands of supporters of the first Armenian president, candidate
for the RA presidency Levon Ter-Petrosian took place in Freedom Square
of Yerevan on February 16. The number of those present exceeded the
number of paricipants in the rally held a week ago: the participants
thronged the whole square, including the area of Swan Lake.

In addition to the chairman of People’s Party of Armenia Stepan
Demirchian, chairman of "Republic" party Aram Sargsian and the heads of
the other parties supporting L. Ter-Petrosian, the leaders of the
parties that recently stated their support for this presidential
candidate – the chairman of "New Times" party Aram Karapetian and the
political secretary of "Heritage" party Vardan Khachatrian took part in
the rally. It was announced the leader of "Heritage" Raffi Hovannisian
is out of the country. In his speech V. Khachatrian said that although
the attempts to form a united opposition have failed, "Heritage" is
joining the national movement led by L. Ter-Petrosian.

Addressing the ARF’s presidential candidate Vahan Hovhannisian who
called him an "asphalt fidayi" (asphalt partisan), Sasun Mikaelian, a
National Assembly deputy, member of "Trial of Spirit" NGO board, stated
that he was wounded in the Karabakh war and out of 107 fragments he
received at that time, 70 are still in his body. As S. Mikaelian put
it, "even these fragments are dearer to me than the current
authorities". To recap, S. Mikaelian has been expelled from the
Republican Party of Armenia for his statement about backing L.
Ter-Petrosian.

Member of "Country of Law" party’s "Kentron" territorial unit Armen
Ghazarian made a speech, in which he announced the decision of
thousands of their party members to join L. Ter-Petrosian. In his
words, not taking sides with the people today is a treachery.

At the conclusion of the rally, L. Ter-Petrosian made a summary speech
on the election campaign. Then a procession was organized along central
streets of Yerevan.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress