Onnik, you were there. Was there an attempted coup in 2004 and was the suppression of whatever it was (I’ve heard peaceful demonstration) legal?

WHO WILL BE PRESENT IN THE LIBERTY SQUARE?

A1 Plus, 15 November, 2007

Aram Sargsyan, head of the political board of the “Republican” party answered to the question of “A1+” regarding the political powers that would participate in the 16 November gathering in the Liberty Square in Yerevan: “Many people will make speeches during the gathering. I would not like to mention the names of the participants, since the surprise will have a particular influence”. Aram Sargsyan only said that the leaders of the parties who supported Levon Ter-Petrosyan would make speeches during the gathering.

“A1+” tried to find out whether the members of the “Heritage” party will be present in the Liberty Square on 16 November. The press speaker of the “Heritage” party Hovsep Khurshudyan informed that the party had not made a decision to participate in the gathering or not: “The leader of the party in not in the country now, but other members of the party are free to decide, we do not ban their actions”. Hovsep Khurshudyan also mentioned that separate members of the party might participate in the gathering, but would not make speeches.

We should mention that the gathering will take place tomorrow at 17.00 p.m. . The First President of the Republic Levon Ter-Petrosyan is to make a speech.

Interestingly, he said that if next year’s presidential election was a choice between two candidates, Serzh Sarkisian or Levon Ter Petrosian, he would vote for Serzh. When I asked if he’d vote for Levon if Raffi Hovannisian came out in support, he looked confused as he couldn’t understand why Heritage might do such a thing.

So, while many think that the election might be a two-horse race, there’s one other option if not all the opposition parties support Levon. That is, another candidate such as Artur Baghdasarian who is apparently way ahead of Levon in opinion polls, makes it through to a second round. As much as they say they dislike Serzh, however, it seems as though the radical opposition also doesn’t like him.

I wonder if Serzh will win in a fairly clean [by Armenian terms] election precisely because of such a possible reality?

Quote: “The tonality of many statements of “the soft intellectual” Ter-Petrosian proves that the new election campaign will be quite acute.”

Just what does that mean? This level of babel is totally unacceptable.