Khaleej Times, United Arab Emirates
Feb. 25, 2008
Council of Europe urges calm in Armenia election protests
(AFP)
25 February 2008
YEREVAN – A Council of Europe diplomat on Monday urged Armenian
authorities and thousands of demonstrators camped in the capital
Yerevan for a sixth straight day to refrain from violence.
Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis, representing the Council of
Europe, told journalists after meeting Armenian Foreign Minister
Vardan Oskanian, that ?violence is something that must be avoided at
all costs.?
?I hope very much there will be no escalation,? he said.
Several thousand opposition supporters gathered by early afternoon
Monday on Freedom Square outside Yerevan?s opera house to demand the
result of the February 19 presidential election be overturned.
Between 20,000 and 30,000 supporters of opposition leader and former
president Levon Ter-Petrosian had rallied for the previous five days
after official results gave victory to Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian.
Kubis said he was ?very glad there is a place for this kind of
manifestation? and praised the government for ?acting in a
responsible way, with restraint.?
The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe has 47 member states and
upholds democracy, human rights and the rule of law.