AUTHORITIES CANCEL OPPOSITION RALLY OVER SECURITY REASONS

Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS
March 12 2008
Russia

Armenian President Robert Kocharian has described as "provocative"
Levon Ter-Petrosian’s announcement that a rally will be held
immediately after the state of emergency is lifted.

"If we give the go-ahead to a rally, people who participated in the
unrest and clashed with police and representatives of law enforcement
agencies will gather in one spot. I cannot imagine how they will
deal with each other. Repeating the same steps again would be a
provocation," the president told journalists on Wednesday.

Rallies should be avoided for some time, a pause is needed and the
level of polarization in society should be reduced, he said.

"Maybe, some will welcome clashes and new victims, as this would
provide a pretext for publications in foreign newspapers. But the
authorities will not allow this, the more so since Article 43 of the
Constitution gives us all legal grounds for that. I would ask citizens
to refrain from joining rallies," Kocharian said.

Earlier, Armenia’s first President Ter-Petrosian claimed that the
authorities had denied him permission to stage a rally on Freedom
Square on March 21 for security reasons.

Ter-Petrosian also said that the opposition was denied permission to
rally in Echmiadzin.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress