TER-PETROSIAN APPEALS FOR WESTERN SUPPORT
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 28 2008

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters marched past the OSCE
office in Yerevan on Thursday after their leader, former President
Levon Ter-Petrosian, appealed to Western powers to back his demands
for a re-run of Armenia’s disputed presidential election.

In a speech before a big crowd that filled the city’s Liberty Square
for the ninth consecutive day, Ter-Petrosian criticized Western
observers for calling the vote largely democratic and portrayed his
ongoing street protests as a pro-democracy movement based on liberal
democratic values.

"The West, the election missions must not display a formalistic
approach to what is happening in Armenia," he told the crowd. "The
fate of democracy in Armenia is in the hands of the West. Namely,
the United States and the European Union countries and structures like
the Council of Europe, the OSCE and the observers representing them."

"So the West, the European countries, the United States of America
and their international organizations must make the following choice.

Either they are with the people of Armenia — and that means standing
for democracy, the rule of law and a market-based economy — or with
Armenia’s kleptocratic, rotten regime," said Ter-Petrosian.

Ter-Petrosian thanked Western governments for urging the Armenian
authorities not to use force against his supporters holding non-stop
rallies in Yerevan but said "more needs to be done" to promote
the country’s democratization. That, he said, means demanding the
scrapping of the official results of the February 19 election which
gave victory to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian.

The appeal came the day after Ter-Petrosian met with Peter Semneby,
the EU’s special representative to the South Caucasus who arrived
in Yerevan to discuss growing post-election tensions in Armenia
with government and opposition leaders. Ter-Petrosian’s office said
the ex-president assured Semneby that "the movement led by him will
continue to act within the framework of the constitution and laws." He
at the same time reaffirmed his plans to "fight against the existing
kleptocratic system to the end."

Semneby also met with Sarkisian on Thursday. A government statement
quoted the EU envoy as congratulating the Armenian premier on his
election win and praising the government’s conduct of the vote. The
statement said Semneby also conveyed to Sarkisian a message from the
EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, which called on the two
rival camps not to take "steps leading to violence."

"We will be extremely patient as long as they don’t try to abuse
that patience, and that would lead to bad consequences," Sarkisian
was reported to reply.

In his speech, Ter-Petrosian commended Russia for displaying a more
"serious" attitude towards the post-election unrest. Ter-Petrosian,
who reportedly met outgoing Russian President Vladimir Putin’s likely
successor on the eve of the vote, said Moscow is closely monitoring
the situation in Armenia and "will make the right decision."