Opposition politician to head Armenia’s Security Council

Interfax News Agency, Russia
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 29, 2008 Friday 5:16 PM MSK

YEREVAN Feb 29 — Artur Bagdasarian, a centrist opposition leader who
lost Armenia’s February 19 presidential election to Prime Minister
Serzh Sargsyan, has signed a cooperation pact with the ruling coalition
and has accepted an offer to head the country’s Security Council,
his party’s spokeswoman said.

"Serzh Sargsyan has proposed that we join the agreement, and we have
done so. Bagdasarian has been offered the post of secretary of the
Armenian Security Council, which he has accepted," Susanna Abrahamian,
a spokeswoman for the Rule of Law Country party, told Interfax.

"So far no other post has been offered to any member of our party,"
she said.

The Security Council’s incumbent secretary is Armen Gevorkian, who
simultaneously heads the president’s staff.

At a recent rally in Yerevan, Sargsyan urged the opposition to
collaborate with the authorities.

Bagdasarian came third in the presidential election.

Supporters of ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian, who was second,
have been holding rallies in Yerevan since February 20, demanding
the annulment of the results of what they claim was a rigged election.