Levon Ter-Petrosyan: Force application in September 1996 was absolutely
justified and has nothing in common with today’s events

2008-03-01 13:29:00

ArmInfo. ‘Force application in September 1996 was absolutely justified
and has nothing in common with today’s events’, – the first Armenian
president Levon Ter-Petrosyan said at the press-conference, Saturday.

To recall, in September 1996 the opposition candidate for president
Vazgen Manukyan’s supporters displeased with decision of Central
Electoral Commission, which declared Levon Ter-Petrosyan the winner
of the election, took the building of the National Assembly with
storm. After that troops entered the city and a force action was
fulfilled.

‘Here I absolutely agree to Robert Kocharyan. If protestors take
state offices with a storm, beat up the speaker of the parliament,
in that case force should be applied. That time National Security
Minister Serzh Sarkisyan suggested to bring down fire on those who
attacked the building of the parliament. I allowed to fire only in
the air. Application of force that time was absolutely justified’,
– Ter-Petrosyan said.

He sees no parallel to April 2004 when according to Robert Kocharyan’s
order the law-enforcement bodies broke up the rally of the leader of
People’s Party of Armenian Stepan Demirchayn’s supporters by means
of water jet cannons. ‘That time a year passed after the election
but today we deal with post-election processes’, – Ter-Petrosyan said.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress