GEORGIAN OPPOSITION PARTY CONDEMNS RECENT VIOLENCE IN ARMENIA
Rustavi 2 TV
March 3 2008
Georgia
[Presenter] Georgian [opposition] Republican Party has disseminated a
statement regarding the current events inArmenia. The party has called
on the Armenian government to immediately cease violence against its
own people. Thestatement reads that maintenance of public order and
fighting against criminals should not be used to intimidate people or
settle scores with political opponents. Members of the [Republican]
Party consider that international organizationsand the leaderships
of democratic countries had apparently failed to derive lessons from
the recent events in Georgia[referring to the police dispersal of
opposition protests and forceful closure of pro-opposition Imedi TV
on 7 November and subsequent clampdown on media] and that this time
too they failed to give an [proper] assessment to the currentcrisis
in Armenia.
[Republican Party member Davit Zurabishvili] [This was] violence
against its own people. One cannot name itotherwise. People have
died. Unfortunately, the Armenian government failed to demonstrate
the political will to take acompromise and choose a democratic
development and to virtually listen to the demands these people
[protesters] hadposed.