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1. khrimian 03.25.08 / 4am

   The authorities behaved in the same manner as former President Levon Ter-Petrossian during the 1996 election? Please excuse my rigid response but there is a huge difference between this years election and that of 1996. Where shall I began? Well for one, Levon Ter-Petrossian declared himself as victor and hosted a celebration before voting was even complete, dismissing any accusations of election fraud as if he himself was the Constitutional Court body. Under President Kocharian not only did the government wait until voting was complete to release the election results, excuse my humor, but allowed the opposition leader to appeal to the Constitutional Court and legally dispute the results.

   Those who protested outside the gates of parliament in ‘96 represented the Armenian public and not supporters of an opposition candidate, were demanding a public recount, and not an entirely new election. In my opinion, the public felt so deceived by authorities that they saw themselves as justified in storming parliament and independently conducting a recount themselves, as oppose to those who rallied in Freedom Square this past February and March chanting ‘Levon’ and cursing young soldiers, their own sons. The opposition of the ‘96 election on the other hand was not motivated by external agencies that were arrogantly intervening in Armenian internal affairs with self-interest intentions. Instead, the opposition and public were taken by complete surprise when they learned of Ter-Petrossian’s alleged victory, given that he was an unpopular figure in which he at the time had quickly become. Also, the opposition of ‘96 did not take advantage of the countries situation by mobilizing elements of the public, throwing the political sphere into disarray only in order to promote his own political ambitions.

   The response from Kocharian’s government to mass demonstrations came after days of warnings and efforts to disperse the illegally held protests. Levon Ter-Petrosian, however, in 1996 simply decided to ‘bring in the tanks’ as if he was on a campaign to conquer the capital from the countryside. Let us also not forget that this man was responsible for arresting political leaders on completely false accusations, banned a political party, and under whose administration we saw the cold blooded murder of several high level officials including the late Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Vazgen Sarkissian.

   Simply put, it just doesn’t taste the same. Aside from these crucial differences between President Kocharian’s government and that of Ter-Petrossian, we can now see the current government taking positive steps to earn back the trust of the people that may have been tainted as a result of March 1st. The formation of a multi-party coalition representing the majority and actively pursuing dialogue, which technically the government could have avoided and still held a majority by forming a coalition with just the Prosperous Armenia Party, as oppose to banning them and arresting their leaders shows the extent to which this government is applying itself to stabilize the Post-election waves.

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