news.az, Azerbaijan
Jan 9 2010

The Armenian authorities are so short-sighted, Levon Ter-Petrosyan
Sat 09 January 2010 | 05:28 GMT Text size:

Levon Ter-Petrosyan "All our victories were real, not just moral.

Our key victory is that 2 years after the presidential election we are
strong and united as never before despite the tragic events of March
1, persecutions and arrests," said Levon Ter-Petrosyan, Leader of the
Armenian National Congress, during the rally of his supporters. He
welcomed Suren Surenyants and Hmayak Hovhannissyan who withdrew their
candidatures in favor of Nikol Pashinyan. "Can you imagine something
like this in the camp of the authorities?" he said.

He said the election at the district No10 were falsified from the very
beginning. He is sure that in no other country a candidate for
parliament could be arrested. "The letter of the law is prior for the
country. However, the Armenian authorities are so short-sighted that
they did not understand that they could gain dividends from the
international community if they did not arrest Pashinyan," Levon
Ter-Petrosyan said. For conclusion, he said that Nikol Pashinyan has
already gained victory in the election given the number of the
participants in the rally. He also said that the next ANC rally will
be held on March 1. After the rally, 1500-2000 participants in the
rally went in a procession along the streets.

The ANC rally is timed to the additional parliamentary elections in
the election district No10 scheduled for January 10. Nikol Pashinyan,
the oppositionist, the editor of Haykakan Zhamanak Daily, who is
currently in custody, advanced his candidature at the elections.
Pashinyan is charged with Articles 316.1 and 225.1 of the Armenian
Criminal Code (organizing mass public disturbances, using force
against a representative of the state and violating the law regarding
the staging of public events).

Pashinyan had been wanted for over a year and emerged from the
underground after the president announced amnesty. The deputy mandate
of the above election district proved vacant after the former
parliamentarian Khachatur Sukiasyan was deprived of his mandate for
complicity in the incidents of March 2008 in Yerevan.