SARKISIAN SAYS COALITION TALKS IN PROGRESS
By Ruzanna Khachatrian

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 27 2008

Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian said on Wednesday that his offer to
form a new, more broad-based coalition government has met with a
positive response from some of the Armenian opposition leaders who
challenged him in last week’s presidential election.

In a speech at a Tuesday rally in Yerevan, Sarkisian said he is
ready to defuse rising political tensions in Armenia by cutting a
power-sharing deal with those "constructive" opposition forces that
will recognize his victory in the disputed vote.

"There has already been reaction, readiness to cooperate from the
opposition," he told lawmakers the next day. "We began working on
that today."

In a separate conversation with journalists, Sarkisian declined
to specify which opposition leaders have expressed readiness to
cooperate with him. "It’s not one candidate," he said. "There a few
of them. They’ll talk about that."

In his speech, Sarkisian did not say whether the offer applies to
former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, his main election challenger who
has refused to concede defeat and is demanding a repeat presidential
election. The president-elect accused Ter-Petrosian and his "aggressive
grouping" of ignoring "the majority’s opinion" and seeking to seize
power by illegal means.

Both Ter-Petrosian and his top allies were quick to rule out any deals
with Armenia’s current leadership. "Either Serzhik or the people
will leave this country," the former president told supporters on
Wednesday. "There can be no other way out."

Sarkisian will find it easier to negotiate a power-sharing agreement
with Artur Baghdasarian, another major opposition candidate who
finished third in the presidential race. Baghdasarian said on Tuesday
that the election was marred by serious violations but stopped short
of rejecting Sarkisian’s victory as illegitimate. He promised to
deliver his final election verdict by Thursday.

Baghdasarian’s Orinats Yerkir Party was already part of Armenia’s
governing coalition from 2003-2006.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), another major
party that contested the vote, is already represented in Sarkisian’s
cabinet by three ministers. Dashnaktsutyun leaders said this week
that they are ready in principle to stay in government.