ARMENIA’S NEW PRESIDENT TO TAKE OFFICE AMID OPPOSITION PROTESTS
Mariam Harutunian

Agence France Presse
April 9 2008

Armenia’s president-elect Serzh Sarkisian was to be inaugurated
Wednesday as his opponents gathered to lay flowers in memory of
protesters killed while contesting his February election victory.

Representatives of 58 countries were to attend the swearing-in
ceremony and a military parade in and around the capital Yerevan’s
opera house, said Viktor Sogomonian, outgoing President Robert
Kocharian’s spokesman.

A seventh-century copy of the New Testament from Armenia’s famed
Matenadaran collection of ancient Christian manuscripts and an original
copy of the constitution written after the country’s independence
from the Soviet Union was to be used for the ceremony.

It was to conclude with a blessing of Sarkisian by Catholicos Garegin
II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Supporters of opposition candidate and former president Levon
Ter-Petrosian were meanwhile preparing to hold a memorial ceremony
outside the Yerevan mayor’s office, where post-election clashes left
eight dead.

"While the bloody regime is coronating its ruler, members of society
will gather to honour the memory of the dead and lay flowers where
these tragic events took place," Ter-Petrosian’s spokesman Arman
Musinian told AFP.

Public demonstrations are banned under a presidential decree passed
following the violence, which erupted after riot police dispersed
thousands of protesters who had rallied for 11 days to contest the
result of the vote.

Seven civilians and one security officer were killed in the unrest
and dozens were injured, many from gunshot wounds. A 20-day state
of emergency imposed after the unrest was lifted on March 20, but
authorities have not said when the ban on protests may be rescinded.

Police have arrested 90 people in connection with the unrest, including
many senior opposition figures.

The opposition claims the election was rigged to ensure Sarkisian’s
victory, but international observers said the vote had mostly met
democratic standards.

In his final televised address as president, Kocharian said on Tuesday
that he was leaving office with no regrets.

"Progress in the modernisation of the country is obvious, the lives
of its citizens have fundamentally improved," he said. "At the same
time, it is obvious that much remains to be done. Quality of life is
far from a desirable level. This is the task of the next president
and government."

Speculation had been rife in Armenia that Kocharian intended to take
Sarkisian’s place as prime minister following the inauguration, but on
Tuesday the ruling Republican Party nominated Central Bank Chairman
Tigran Sarkisian to head the new government. Tigran Sarkisian is not
related to the incoming president.

A mountainous country of about three million people — wedged between
Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran and Turkey — Armenia has seen repeated
political violence and post-election protests since gaining its
independence with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.