Armenian police disperse opposition protesters camping out in capital
Associated Press Worldstream
March 1, 2008 Saturday 4:20 AM GMT
YEREVAN Armenia — Armenian police early Saturday morning dispersed
a protest by a few hundred opposition supporters who had been camping
out in the capital for more than a week.
The police moved in before 7 a.m. (0300GMT) and began forcing
protesters onto buses. A few clashes broke out on the central Yerevan
square.
The opposition has protested the results of the Feb. 19 presidential
election results and tried to force a new vote.
Officials said Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian the favored successor
of outgoing President Robert Kocharian won the vote outright. But
supporters of opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian have rejected
the results, citing fraud.
Daily protests on a large square in central Yerevan have drawn tens
of thousands of people. Several hundred have remained overnight,
warming themselves over campfires and sleeping in tents.
Ter-Petrosian, a former president of Armenia, appealed to the
Constitutional Court on Friday to overturn the results.
The observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe said there were concerns about the vote count, but issued
a generally positive assessment.
The standoff has raised concerns of instability in the poor Caucasus
nation at the junction of the energy-rich Caspian Sea region and
southern Europe, with Russia and Iran nearby.