"LEVON TER-PETROSIAN SHOULD ANSWER TO BOTH THE PEOPLE AND THE POLICE FOR IT"
By Aghavni Harutyunian

AZG Armenian Daily
07/03/2008

Post-election Crisis

President Kocharian details the last developments

"Unfortunately, we couldn’t avoid clashes. And we suffer losses",
started his press conference Armenian president Robert Kocharian
presenting his condolences to the families of the victims. "The
latest developments showed that imposing of the state of emergency
was necessary and I am sure that if we didn’t declare it the number
of victims would be more and the consequences would be more serious
for Armenia", mentioned Mr. Kocharian.

The whole picture of the incidents will be recovered minute by
minute. And it will give an opportunity to assess the incidents
precisely.

According to President Kocharian, the participants of the
events can be divided into three groups. The first group is the
organizers. Mr. Kocharian divided them into two parts – the aggressive
people that provoked collisions, i.e. Nikol Pashinian, and the people
that understanding that the situation was getting out of control
tried to calm down the demonstrators, i.e. Davit Shahnazarian.

The second group of the participants involves those who organized
attacks on the police and used arms and explosives. "This group is
mainly to blame for the victims", said the President.

"The third group is those who didn’t participate in the attacks
but actively took part in the robbery. "It will be unjust leaving
aside the organizers and instigators to punish only these people,
who became the victims of those rallies, too", added Mr. Kocharian.

"The rating of the country is seriously damaged", mentioned
Mr. Kocharian and reminded that a month ago Armenia was considered
as the most stable and developing country in the region. "We should
take the liberty of taking a sober view of what happened and work
together to recover both the country’s rating and the attitude of
the world towards our people", said the President.

Mr. Kocharian said that they should be sure that similar disorders
would not be repeated before lifting the state of emergency.

What about authorities-Levon Ter-Petrosian dialogue the opposition
rejected it. Almost all the political forces besides Levon
Ter-Petrosian responded the statement of the newly elected president
about the readiness for dialogue, and active negotiations are conducted
for the future coalition government.

What about the fact that Levon Ter-Petrosian rejected to receive the
Catholicos is surprising to Mr. Kocharian as with not meeting the
Catholicos Levon Ter-Petrosian lost his chance to find a way out.

What about the probable restart of the rallies after lifting the state
of emergency Robert Kocharian mentioned that the available disgrace
is a result of Levon Ter-Petrosian’s activity. "Levon Ter-Petrosian
should answer to both the people and the police for it".