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1. Bruce Tasker 02.22.08 / 2pm

   Onnik,

   Have you heard that LTP has managed to force a re-count, which has exposed quite considerable vote rigging. Nothing too sophisticated, simply transferring tens of thousands of votes from LTP and other candidates to Sargsyan. Nikol Pashinian announced that to tens of thousands of demonstrators last night at the Republican square.

   Already, the re-count of a number of polling stations is known, reversing the results completely in favor of LTP.

   The report that “Nikol Pashinian appears to be threatening violent actions of protest if the authorities do not hold new presidential elections”, presumably means in the event the authorities do not recognize the results of the re-count - which I understand is ongoing. Interesting, why do the authorities not announce this to the Armenian public and to the international community ?

   Ballot box stuffing, transporting people to polling stations, buying votes, intimidation, using state resources to bolster Sargsyan’s chances are all understandable tactics, simply par for the course. But stealing votes from other Presidential candidates is presumably quite a serious offense?
2. Onnik 02.22.08 / 2pm

   No, I have not seen such reports even from the pro-opposition media. However, there is this which shows that votes in one polling station were taken from candidates other than Ter-Petrossian.

   http://blog.oneworld.am/2008/02/22/recount-results-known/

   As there is considerable misinformation being spread by Ter-Petrossian’s campaign team, please post links to credible sources of information to back up your claims in future. If they’re true then they should be revealed.

   However, as you are also a pro-Ter-Petrossian supporter I have to request that you post links to confirmation of such reports of which there should be many.

   Pro-Ter-Petrossian outlets such as A1 Plus, ArmeniaNow, RFE/RL and Hetq Online have yet to report such recounts, for example. They only mention PEC 9/31.

   As I’ve said before, there is every indication that a second round should have been called although few other than Ter-Petrossian’s supporters and campaign team consider that the former president won.
3. Bruce Tasker 02.22.08 / 3pm

   Onnik,

   You, as a journalist are presumably following the LTP demonstrations. If not, why don’t you go to listen to LTP at 3.00 pm today, where you might hear that and another snippet that I am informed Artur Baghdasarian will be joining the effort (That is not confirmed and we should all know at 3.00).

   The announcement on the re-count may not be made at 3.00 pm., I am informed it should be at 5.00 pm today.

   By the way, your election monitor includes information from Mediamax, which “reports that the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Armenia has issued a statement refuting Levon Ter-Petrossian’s claims to have the support of key members of the country’s military”

   LTP has said he has assurances from them that the army will not get involved in internal political processes, exactly in accordance with the statement you have published from the ministry of defense..

   LTP has claimed that the leader of the Armenian army that won the Karabakh war in 1991/3, General Manvel Grigorian, backs his effort. (the one that came to the defense of Sargsyan and Kocharian when they were under attack from Azerbaijan).
4. Onnik 02.22.08 / 4pm

   No, actually, given how corrupt the situation here is with the media and civil society where connections and relationships determine who get financed and who doesn’t. As a result, I’ve actually got work to do in order to be able to pay my rent and pay my bills and as there’s no real interest from the international media I have to fulfill contractual obligations at a company in Komitas.

   Regarding your comments on Grigorian, firstly, please post them on a relevant post. Secondly, I agree and that’s what the Constitution dictates (to date, only Ter-Petrossian has used the army against the people after an election), but that’s not what Ter-Petrossian and some of his supporters, including partisan journalists in the pro-opposition media, are reporting.

   Baghdasarian is to be expected. The claims about Grigorian are something else and need to be verified before possible misinformation is spread. As for your partisan crap about Grigorian, he’s a thug and any side he picks is not any good indication of either candidate having any democratic credentials.

   Incidentally, Yerkrapah, which included Grigorian and also Aram Sargsyan’s brother, were also partly responsible for Ter-Petrossian’s resignation and there is no sign that Grigorian and others have changed their positions and now support the concessionary approach to negotiations that the former president does.

   Like I said, let’s wait and see if Grigorian does appear today or Ter-Petrossian and his team weren’t just spreading misinformation, but they were actually lying. We should know within the next hour or so.
5. Bruce Tasker 02.22.08 / 6pm

   With respect to Manvel, if you haven’t heard the news yourself, you should simply accept what I write, I spoke to his deputy at quite some length at yesterday evening’s LTP meeting.

   Of course he is a thug, LTP needs the support of a thug or two to be able to overcome the incumbent thugs, which include of course the most famous Sargsyan brother.

   Of course, LTP is surrounded by the intelligencia, including today’s announced university rectors, plus the general prosecutor for the military, who gave a very strong speech (to a crowd of at least 50,000), featuring his assertion that RSK was behind the October 1999 Parliamentary slayings. Raffi Hovhanissian has also eventually seen the light and gave a very impressive speech - plus there were a few others.

   At 4.30 Nichol Pashinian left the meeting for the prosecutors office, I understand to register an official complaint or some other kind of representation.

   I did not hear the announcement about Baghdasarian - maybe that will come later, or maybe not?

   But with respect to the re-count, believe me it is going on, I also have that information straight from the LTP camp. So you do not need to rely on what may be reported, or misreported through the local media, take it straight from the horses mouth, which as you know is far more reliable.

   It is a pity you don’t have the opportunity to follow it yourself, it is really getting quite interesting.
6. Onnik 02.22.08 / 6pm

   Sorry, Bruce, but you should know that no journalist is going to take words from members of Ter-Petrossian’s or Sargsyan’s inner circle at face value. Certainly, nobody is going to accept what you write until something more substantial is provided, especially with Ter-Petrossian’s team known to have spread misinformation in the past.

   As for the “intelligentsia,” just the very use of that word sickens me and makes me think of what life was like in the Soviet era. Besides, such people have always been by the radical opposition’s side with or without Ter-Petrossian. However, Raffi Hovannisian’s appearance is a significant event.

   Gagik Jhangiryan’s isn’t, however, as he’s always been allied to the Vazgen Sargsyan side of politics and was also reportedly part of the mechanism which falsified the 1996 presidential election for Levon Ter-Petrossian. Kind of ironic to hear people as corrupt as him speak of justice and democracy now.
7. Bruce Tasker 02.23.08 / 3pm

   Our questionable President to be Serge Sargsyan, instructed Haik Harutsunian, Minister of Internal to send in a team to break up the LTP demonstrations. But Harutsunian refused to carry out the orders and submitted his resignation – twice (of course it is unlikely that you will read this through the official media). The word from the LTP camp is that, as the Minister of Internal Affairs will not send his people, Sargsyan has arranged for a band of paid thugs to go in.

   So if the demonstrations, which to date have been friendly and without incident, become ugly, then the people of Armenia should know, it has not been orchestrated by the LTP camp, as no doubt Sargsyan will announce through his state media, it will have been orchestrated by Sargsyan, who has paid the same thugs who did the beating up on election day – a continuation of Sargsyan’s state terrorism.
8. Bruce Tasker 02.24.08 / 4am

   Sargsyan ‘Showthugs’

   The thugs we heard about turned out to be ‘Showthugs’, a nice propaganda piece orchestrated in a back street which looked to be somewhere on the outskirts of Yerevan. It is nice to see that Serge’s (were they from Aparan?) thugs are accommodating enough to congregate with their banners so far from the Opera so that the police could bring them under control away from the LTP demonstration. But contrary to election day, when these thugs beat up reporters and smashed their cameras, this time the cameras continued to roll well enough to get these state sponsored thugs and their thug pantomime a prime-time spot on state television.
   I’ve already written about how ‘you can’t fool all of the people all of the time’, but Serge obviously still thinks he can.

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