Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
Feb. 25, 2008
Armenian authorities call for end to election protests
(AFP)
25 February 2008
YEREVAN – Authorities in the Armenian capital Yerevan on Monday
called for an end to protests against the alleged rigging of the
presidential election as thousands rallied for a sixth day.
The mayor?s office issued a statement calling on demonstrators to
?end the holding of unauthorised protests? which it said had become
an ?unacceptable situation.?
The statement ordered protestors ?not to obstruct the free movement
of traffic and not to prevent citizens from free movement… and to
restore normal life in the capital.?
More than 15,000 opposition supporters gathered Monday on Freedom
Square outside Yerevan?s opera house demanding the result of the
February 19 presidential election be overturned.
Protesters had set up about two dozen tents and kept a constant vigil
in the square, huddling around campfires to keep warm in the bitter
cold.
As at previous protests, several thousand demonstrators marched
through the streets of the capital for more than an hour Monday,
bringing traffic to a standstill as they passed government buildings
surrounded by riot police.
Crowds numbering 20,000 to 30,000 supporters of opposition leader and
former president Levon Ter-Petrosian had rallied for the previous
five days.
Official results from the election gave victory to Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian with 53 percent of the vote, followed by
Ter-Petrosian with 21.5 percent.
Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis, representing the Council of
Europe, told journalists after meeting Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian in Yerevan that ?violence is something that must be
avoided at all costs.?
?I hope very much there will be no escalation,? he said.
Kubis said he was ?very glad? there was a place for this kind of
demonstration and praised the government for ?acting in a responsible
way, with restraint.?
The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe has 47 member states and
upholds democracy, human rights and the rule of law.
On Saturday outgoing President Robert Kocharian described the
protests as an attempt at an illegal power grab and promised the
government?s response would be ?decisive and firm to maintain
stability and the constitutional order.?