Aravot, Armenia
Feb. 23, 2008
FORMER ARMENIAN PROSECUTOR CALLS FOR ELECTION RESULTS TO BE
RECONSIDERED
Armenia’s former deputy prosecutor-general, Gagik Jangiryan, who was
dismissed after he announced his supportfor former president Levon
Ter-Petrosyan, has called for the reconsideration of the results of
the 19 Februarypresidential elections. Speaking at the opposition
rally in Yerevan on 22 February, he said that it is impossible togain
the people’s vote of confidence through ballot stuffing. He also said
that the Armenian military will notraise their hand against the own
people. Ter-Petrosyan’s supporters are protesting against the results
of thepresidential election, according to which Ter-Petrosyan gained
about 21 per cent of votes and Prime Minister SerzhSargsyan about
51.7 per cent. The following is an excerpt from Gayane Sahakyan’s
report from Armenian newspaperAravot on 23 February headlined "I am
already a former prosecutor":
Yesterday the already former deputy prosecutor-general of the
Republic of Armenia, Gagik Jangiryan, speaking for the second time on
Freedom Square after his dismissal, announced that if he participated
in rallies by [president-elect and Prime Minister] Serzh Sargsyan and
misused his position for the sake of this, he would not be dismissed,
but would get apromotion. "However, everything is okay, I will
overcome this sorrow in a few days," Jangiryan added.
SamvelHovhannisyan, the investigator of the 27 October case [the 1999
attack on the Armenian parliament] also followed theexample of his
former boss [Jangiryan].
[Passage omitted: description of the rally]
Jangiryan said at the rally: "I am still a prosecutor and I do not
call on you for violence, but I am saying -do not retreat before any
force. There is no general or serviceman in our country who will be
able to raise their handagainst the Armenian people". He urged people
to call Levon Ter-Petrosyan not the first president of the republic,
but its third president.
Jangiryan also touched upon the 27 October case. "I would not be
honest with myself, if I did not discuss the 27October case with you.
I definitely join the political assessments made by Levon
Ter-Petrosyan – the criminal casesseparated from the 27 October case
were hushed up with blatant violations of the Criminal Procedure
Code, and theinvestigation into this separated part was prohibited."
At the moment when Jangiryan announced his support for Ter-Petrosyan
and danced with the first president and rallyparticipants on the
square, the Prosecutor-General’s Office of the Republic of Armenia
reported that theprosecutor-general had asked Armenian President
Robert Kocharyan to dismiss Jangiryan from his office and from
theprosecutor’s office, as the law bans prosecutors from engaging in
politics.
The leader of the Heritage Party, Raffi Hovhannisyan, also attended
the rally yesterday. Addressing Prime MinisterSerzh Sargsyan, he
called on him to apologize to the people and to join the movement for
reconsidering the electionresults: "Is it possible to gain the
people’s vote of confidence through ballot stuffing and violence? Is
it avictory he deserves?"
The deputy chairman of the Yerkrapah Union of Volunteers, Miasnik
Malkhasyan, announced that all Yerkrapah membersand suicide attackers
[as written], volunteer fighters and volunteer veterans have joined
Ter-Petrosyan’s movement under one single banner.
[Passage omitted: Malkhasyan comments on the pro-government
orientation of the presidential candidate, ArtashesGeghamyan, the
leader of the National Unity Party; speeches by other participants in
the rally – Nikol Pashinyan,editor-in-chief of the opposition daily
Haykakan Zhamanak; Grigor Harutyunyan, the secretary of the People’s
Party of Armenia; and the leader of the Armenian Marxist Party of
Armenia, David Hakobyan]