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Ter-Petrosian Defiant As Supporters Clash With Police

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  • Ter-Petrosian Defiant As Supporters Clash With Police

    Ter-Petrosian Defiant As Supporters Clash With Police
    By Ruzanna Stepanian and Emil Danielyan

    Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
    March 1 2008

    Thousands of angry opposition supporters again gathered in Yerevan
    and clashed with police on Saturday as their leader, former President
    Levon Ter-Petrosian, pledged to continue to challenge the official
    results of Armenia's presidential election.

    The rally broke out spontaneously on a street in downtown Yerevan
    just hours after security forces broke up a non-stop vigil kept
    by Ter-Petrosian supporters in the city's Liberty Square. Hundreds
    of riot police and interior troops, backed by water cannons, were
    rushed to the street outside the French Embassy to try to disperse
    the crowd. The protesters chanting "Freedom!" and "Levon!" confronted
    them with sticks and stones.

    Armenia's human rights ombudsman, Armen Harutiunian, and an
    opposition parliamentarian, Anahit Bakhshian, were at the scene,
    trying unsuccessfully to prevent the clash. Despite police warnings
    about "unpredictable" consequences, the number of protesters grew
    rapidly early in the afternoon. Law-enforcement bodies cordoned off
    the entire area to keep the crowd from moving to Liberty Square and
    key government buildings.

    Many of the protesters appeared to have participated in the overnight
    vigil in the square. Some bore traces of violence on their heads and
    faces. Ter-Petrosian aides hundreds of people were injured during
    the break-up of the non-stop protest.

    Ter-Petrosian, meanwhile, held a news conference in his house outside
    the city center where he claimed to have been forcibly taken from
    Liberty Square by security officers led by the chief of President
    Robert Kocharian's security service. He said they banned him from
    leaving the house and receiving visitors. However, security officers
    deployed outside Ter-Petrosian's home insisted that he is not under
    house arrest.

    "I don't understand how the international community could tolerate
    what happened last night," Ter-Petrosian told journalists. "I have
    no doubts that the people won't come to terms with this reality. We
    have a new people who have ridden themselves of fear. In the past
    five months we have created a new society, civil society"

    "Even if Serzh Sarkisian miraculously becomes president, I can't
    imagine how that president will rule these people," he said.

    Ter-Petrosian said he and his allies, some of whom arrested by the
    police, will continue to stage street protests despite the crackdown.

    He argued that such protests will be lawful because the authorities
    have not declared a state of emergency.

    "We will use all means stemming from law," said the ex-president. "We
    will demand permissions for rallies, marches, pickets. Regardless of
    whether they give [such permission] we have the right to organize our
    events as we have done before because there is no state of emergency.

    "We will come out. Let them beat us again. Let them arrest us again."

    "Rallies may erupt spontaneously," added Ter-Petrosian. "We must
    control and manage them. If I am allowed to get out of here, I will
    naturally be with the people."

    Ter-Petrosian's campaign office said at least 11 opposition activists,
    including former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian, were detained in
    outside Liberty Square earlier in the day. It said six other activists
    remain unaccounted for.
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