First president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan: Robert Kocharyan and Serzh
Sargsyan have thrown out a challenge to whole civilized world by March 1
forceful action
2008-03-01 12:58:00
ArmInfo. "Armenian President Robert Kocharyan and Prime Minister
Serzh Sargsyan have thrown out a challenge to whole civilized world
by today’s forceful action at Liberty Square", Levon Ter-Petrosyan,
the first president of Armenia, a presidential candidate, said at a
press-conference, Saturday.
To note, Ter-Petrosyan gave the press-conference at his house, the
entrance of which is being guarded by the Police and internal troops.
Ter-Petrosyan said that at 6 am, Saturday, when he was sleeping in
his car parked at Liberty Square, his team-mates woke him up and
said that active current of traffic was being observed from suburban
Davidashen community of Yerevan and village of Parakar to the center
of Yerevan. "I was told that numerous trucks with special task force,
but without water jet cannons and other equipment were coming",
Ter-Petrosyan said. According to him, he received such signals every
night and paid no special attention to this.
However, the task forcers appeared at Liberty Square very soon
and stood in two rows approximately 5 meters away from the action
participants. "I approached the microphone and asked my supporters
not to get in touch with the policemen until it becomes clear what
they want", Ter-Petrosyan noted.
He said that the special task force attacked the action participants
without any warning. Naturally, the action participants started
maintaining resistance, and a scuffle started. "I state that there
were no water jet cannons or other equipment, only batons and electric
jolts, I saw the blue sparks myself", Ter-Petrosyan said. He added
that he personally saw numerous people bleeding to death, however,
he can’t say anything precisely about either the number of injured or
arrested people – he can contact almost none of his team-mates. "I saw
the special task forcers scattering metallic rods in the tents before
battering them. They also battered the equipment for the rallies, broke
the speaker system and other facilities with their feet", he said.
After the force action had been completed, the head of the Armenian
presidential security, Grisha Sarkisov and demanded that Ter-Petrosyan
leave the square. "I answered him that I would go nowhere until I
see the sanctions of the prosecutor general. Then Sarkisov and some
more people forced back my security, literally twisted me hands,
pushed me into a car and brought me home. I don’t know whether I am
grounded, I have not been officially notified about that, but nobody
is allowed to come to me and I am not allowed to leave home. I also
know that Armenian former prime minister Hrant Bagratyan is really
arrested, I managed to contact Nikol Pashinyan, Aram Sargsyan and
Stepan Demirchyan, I am not aware of the rest of my team- mates",
Ter-Petrosyan said.
Touching upon his further steps, Ter-Petrosyan said that he will apply
to the City Hall to hold rallies and other actions until a state
of emergency is imposed, and if he receives a refusal he will take
relevant steps. "If the Constitutional Court rejects our claim, we’ll
go forward. Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan will not digest what
they have done. All the ambassadors of the European Union, the United
States and Russia to Armenia are aware of what has happened. They
think that they have chosen a good moment – the whole world shifted
its attention to Russia, where presidential election will be held
tomorrow, but this doesn’t matter", the first president of Armenia
said. He is not confused with the fact that Serzh Sargsyan receives
felicitations. "Today people congratulate him, tomorrow they will
congratulate me", he said.