DASHNAKS DEFEND EMERGENCY RULE
Radio Liberty
March 3 2008
Czech Republic
The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) on Monday
defended the imposition of a state of emergency in Yerevan, saying
that the post-election protests staged by former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian were an attempt at coup d’etat.
"We emphasize that the actions taken by the first president and his
supporters were an attempt to come power by violent means and that
the Armenian president’s decision to declare a state of emergency was
a necessity," the leadership of the nationalist party represented in
the government said in a statement.
The statement said Saturday’s deadly clashes between security forces
and thousands of opposition supporters were part of Ter-Petrosian’s
"scenario consistently prepared in the last several months." It
demanded that the authorities identify and strictly punish organizers
of the riots.
Dashnaktsutyun also faulted Armenia’s leadership for failing to
address "objective reasons" for public discontent with the state of
affairs in the country which it said was the reason why Ter-Petrosian
has attracted a large following since his political comeback in
September. It said the authorities should strengthen the rule of law
and tackle the public "sense of injustice" in earnest.
Dashnaktsutyun contested the February 19 with its own candidate,
Vahan Hovannisian, who won 6.1 percent of the vote, according to
the Central Election Commission. While alleging widespread fraud,
the party recognized Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s victory in the
vote and is understood to be ready to join a new coalition government
which he plans to form in the coming weeks.