Mediamax, Armenia
Feb 13 2009

Armenian opposition confirms plans to hold rally on 1 March

Yerevan, 13 February: The opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC)
has "a firm intention" to hold a rally in central Yerevan on 1 March,
Arman Musinyan, the press secretary of the ANC leader, former Armenian
President Levon Ter-Petrosyan, said in Yerevan today.

Musinyan said that the decision of the municipality to change the
venue of the rally and forbid a march has not been given to the
organizers of the rally in the form and deadline provided by law. "All
the further steps of the Armenian opposition will be presented at the
rally, and their content depends on the events and circumstances
preceding the rally, Musinyan said. "Being a union of political
parties, ANC does not claim to take up the role of a separate
political force but will actively participate in all internal
political processes, including in the election of the Yerevan Council
of Elders slated for this year," he said. Musinyan said there is a
growth of "domestic public activity, conditioned by both the efforts
of the ANC and the meaningless political steps by the authorities". He
added that the recent speeches by the Armenian president [Serzh
Sargsyan] at the Munich Security Conference and at the congress of the
Prosperous Armenia party "virtually made no sense".