GEORGIAN AUTHORITIES LACK TACT, ARMENIAN MP SAYS
news.am
March 15 2010
Armenia
The Georgian authorities should have exercised great tact if they
wanted to show that scandalous video on Russian intrusion into the
Georgian territory to test the population’s vigilance, Stepan Safaryan,
Head of the Heritage parliamentary faction, told NEWS.am.
He pointed out the need for a most detailed calculation in such cases
to prevent nervous reaction inside and outside the country. Safaryan
pointed out a similar incident in Armenia in 1993: the Haylur
program reported that the then President Levon Ter-Petrosyan had been
hospitalized, and Vice-President Gagik Harutyunyan was acting on his
behalf. The Haylur program was closed after that "joke."
Late on March 13, the Imedi television channel aired a fictitious
report of a Russian invasion and the assassination of Saakashvili
during its evening news program, which sparked panic in the country.