KOCHARIAN URGES TER-PETROSIAN TO END PROTESTS
By Karine Kalantarian

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 29 2008

Outgoing President Robert Kocharian urged his predecessor Levon
Ter-Petrosian to stop disputing the official results of Armenia’s
presidential election and again threatened to forcibly disperse
opposition crowds demonstrating in Yerevan on a daily basis.

The warning came as he discussed possible post-election scenarios
during a meeting with a group of university students of Yerevan
State University.

Kocharian said the most "logical" of those scenarios would be for
Ter-Petrosian to tell thousands of his supporters camped in the city’s
Liberty Square to go home, recognize Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s
election victory and plead for a "lenient treatment" of his loyalists
arrested over the past week. He said the 63-year-old former scholar
should also again retire from active politics and set about writing
"yet another scientific paper."

"The longer they try to keep the people in the Theater Square, the
greater the disappointment of those people will be," Kocharian said,
using the Soviet-era name of the square in front of Yerevan’s Opera
House. "This is a deadlock and that deadlock will primarily discredit
those who are now trying to use this tool."

Kocharian said the Armenian government is ready to "patiently wait
until that theatrical show dies down." But he said law-enforcement
authorities may also use force to "clear the square." He also warned
Ter-Petrosian and his associates will end up in jail for "many years"
if they attempt to seize key government buildings.

The departing Armenian leader will formally complete his second
and final term in office on April 9, and he was asked by one of
the students what he plans to do afterwards. "Yes, I am young. Yes,
I am energetic. But I don’t know what I will be doing," he said.

"We’ll see. Things should clear up after a few months," added
Kocharian.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress