TROOPS PATROL ARMENIAN CAPITAL

Aljazeera.net
March 4 2008
Qatar

Soldiers are on the streets of Yerevan for a second day, after Robert
Kocharian, the country’s president, imposed emergency rule.

The 20-day period was announced after protesters fought with police
in the capital on Saturday.

They accuse Kocharian and Serzh Sarkisian, Armenia’s prime minister,
of rigging last month’s presidential elections.

The authorities said that eight people, seven protestors and one
policeman, were killed in Saturday’s clashes, although some opposition
groups say the number of deaths was higher.

The disturbances are the worst civil disobedience in Armenia since
its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.

Witnesses said they had seen police fire tracer rounds above the
heads of protesters and lob tear gas into the crowd on Saturday.

Demonstrators armed with metal bars and petrol bombs torched cars
and looted shops.

Emergency laws have banned all public meetings and restricted media
reporting.

Levon Ter-Petrosian, the defeated presidential candidate, has blamed
police brutality for the violence.

Diplomatic intervention

Heikki Talvitie, a special envoy for the Organisation for Security
and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), when asked if a negotiation between
the two sides was possible, said: "In all likeliness, this kind of
dialogue between Ter-Petrosian and the government, at the moment,
is not possible."

However, he said there was a possibility that both sides could
negotiate in the days to come.

Talvitie said: "Let’s not exclude it from the future."

Earlier, the envoy flew into Yerevan on Sunday and met Kocharian and
Sarkisian for talks.

Talvitie also met the opposition groups in order to break the deadlock.

A US state department spokesman said Washington was sending Matt Bryza,
deputy assistant secretary of state, to help "facilitate discussions"
between the government and opposition.

But he stressed Bryza would not carry out "formal mediation".

Meanwhile, analysts say Armenia is heading for a period of uncertainty
as neither side has shown much willingness to back down.

Petrosian has told his supporters not to rally during the 20-day
emergency period.

However, he said he wass prepared to continue the protests afterwards.

A western diplomat said: "Petrosian is very determined and very
charismatic. He’ll find it difficult to step back from this now."

Disputed poll

February’s presidential poll saw Sarkisian win 53 per cent of the
vote and Petrosian 21.5 per cent.

The OSCE described the election as flawed but sufficient enough for
Armenia to fulfil its international obligations.

Kocharian and Sarkisian have presided over a period of economic growth,
but detractors accuse their government of corruption and nepotism.

Petrosian was Armenia’s first president after it broke away from the
Soviet Union.

Although street demonstrations forced him to resign in 1998, he
is still supported by many who want an alternative to the current
government.