Interfax, Russia
Russia & CIS General Newswire
February 22, 2008 Friday 8:48 PM MSK
Armenian opposition continuing rally in central Yerevan
YEREVAN Feb 22
The Armenian opposition is continuing a protest rally on Freedom
Square in Yerevan on Friday, to demand that the officially announced
outcomes of recent presidential elections be invalidated.
Police have estimated the number of demonstrators at reaching 10,000
people, and the protesters themselves insist there are at least
200,000 of them, while in fact there are about 25,000 protesters on
the square now.
"We are the masters of Freedom Square today, and tomorrow we will
become the masters of this country," opposition leader and first
Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian said at the rally.
He welcomed students who joined the demonstrators on Friday.
Ter-Petrosian also said Deputy Defense Minister Manvel Grigorian also
supported the protesters. "His civic position is our main victory.
He sided with us yesterday," he said.
Seven members of the parliament representing the Republican Party and
the Prospering Armenia party also supported the protest, according to
opposition leaders.
Special investigator Samvel Ovannisian insisted in his speech at the
rally that an investigation into a terrorist attack on the Armenian
parliament on October 27, 1999, in which the prime minister, the
speaker, two deputy speakers, and several parliamentarians were shot
and killed, needs to be continued. "After that, you will learn what
you have been waiting for ten years," Ovannisian said.
Armenia held presidential elections on February 19, in which Prime
Minister Serzh Sargsyan won by garnering 52.86% of the vote. Ter-
Petrosian received support from 21.5% of the voters.