OPPOSITION LEADER TRUMPETS ARMENIA ‘REVOLUTION’

Agence France Presse
Feb 27 2008

YEREVAN, Feb 27, 2008 (AFP) – Armenian opposition leader Levon
Ter-Petrosian Wednesday said a "revolution" against the government was
under way after last week’s contentious polls, as thousands protested
in Yerevan for an eighth day.

"What’s going is a pure, classic, bourgeois, democratic revolution
to free the economy from a feudal yoke," Ter-Petrosian told around
30,000 protesters on the central Freedom Square in the capital.

Opposition supporters then marched past the prosecutor general’s
office in support of several of their comrades arrested earlier in
the week for illegal possession of firearms and plotting against
the authorities.

The protest remained peaceful but government buildings and embassies
were cordoned off by lines of riot police and the authorities have
said their patience is wearing thin.

Wednesday was the eighth day of round-the-clock protests against the
controversial victory of Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian in an election
on February 19 in this mountainous former Soviet republic.

Ter-Petrosian trailed in second place but claims massive vote fraud
and his supporters are calling for the vote to be annulled.

Protesters chanted "Levon! Levon!" at Wednesday’s rally and waved
placards in support of their candidate.

After the demonstration, protesters prepared to spend another night
on Freedom Square at an impromptu encampment of more than 40 tents
and several camp fires as two police cars stood nearby.

The tents carried the names of various Armenian regions from which
protesters came. On Tuesday, some slept in the tents while others sat
around camp fires on the asphalt, talking and singing into the night.

"It’s the fifth day I’m sleeping out here," said Styopa Sargsian,
22, a musician from the city of Vanadzor in northern Armenia.

"My friends and I brought our instruments with us. We play folk songs
at night. It’s very emotional here. It inspires us," he added.

Protesters are calling for Armenian authorities to annul the result
of the February 19 election, which handed victory to Prime Minister
Serzh Sarkisian, leaving opposition challenger Levon Ter-Petrosian
a distant second.

The opposition leader claims major fraud in the poll count and accuses
Sarkisian of using state resources to promote his candidacy.

He also says that activists campaigning for him across the country
were beaten up.

The unauthorised protests are a major challenge for the government.

On Saturday President Robert Kocharian, who backed Sarkisian in the
election, described the protests as an attempt at an illegal power grab
and promised the government’s response would be "decisive and firm."

Ter-Petrosian, a former president of this former Soviet republic
between 1991 and 1998, ran on an anti-corruption platform.

At a pro-government rally on Tuesday, Sarkisian offered to hold talks
with his rivals, saying there could be a power-sharing deal.

"We appeal to all former presidential candidates and all political
forces supporting them: let us cooperate right up to the formation
of a coalition government," Sarkisian said at the rally.

But a spokesman for Ter-Petrosian’s campaign said it had not received
any formal offer of dialogue.

"When we receive an official offer for talks from the authorities,
then we will think about it. We are not against talks in principle,"
Arman Musinian told AFP.

The Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation
in Europe (OSCE) have called for restraint. OSCE observers said
earlier that the election "mostly" met international standards.