ARMENIAN OPPOSITION PROTESTERS CALL FOR PRESIDENT’S REMOVAL

Agence France Presse
Aug 1 2008
France

YEREVAN (AFP) — Several thousand opposition supporters rallied Friday
in the Armenian capital Yerevan demanding President Serzh Sarkisian’s
removal and early elections.

Up to 5,000 protesters were seen in the centre of Yerevan by an
AFP reporter.

"We are demanding the removal of the president and new parliamentary
and presidential elections," former president and opposition leader
Levon Ter-Petrosian told the crowd.

Ter-Petrosian called another protest for September 5.

Opposition supporters have regularly rallied in Yerevan since Sarkisian
was elected in a February poll marred by post-election violence that
left 10 dead.

The opposition, which accuses Sarkisian of rigging the election,
protested for 11 days after the vote before being violently dispersed
by riot police.

A mountainous country of about three million people, Armenia has
experienced repeated political violence since gaining its independence
with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.