Serzh Sargsyan And Arthur Baghdasaryan Gave Interview

SERZH SARGSYAN AND ARTHUR BAGHDASARYAN GAVE INTERVIEW

Panorama.am
16:02 18/03/2008

On 17 March president elect Serzh Sargsyan and the chairman of Country
of Laws party Arthur Baghdasaryan gave an interview to Washington
Post. The Armenian officials particularly talked about the presidential
elections, their post developments and the coalition creation.

"After the presidential elections Ter-Petrosyan resorted to a dangerous
and profoundly undemocratic form of populism. He radicalized a part
of the opposition and guided it into a standoff with the state, which
led to the March 1 riots in which armed demonstrators confronted
police," is sated in the interview. According to Armenian officials
the pro-government and supporters of the opposition were conscious
that the state of emergency was foreseen.

The two former competitors in the presidential election said that
they were united to end the current crisis and put Armenia back on
track. "Cooperation is the way forward. The political alliance we have
created, between the president-elect and the Rule of Law Party, is an
effort to do things democratically and through compromise. Between us,
we represent 70 percent of the votes of the Armenian people. This is
a serious and solid mandate. On this basis, we will pursue ambitious
but realistic reforms that will strengthen our democracy and our
nation’s socioeconomic progress. In this moment of crisis, we have
agreed to assume responsibility for joint governance."

The officials mentioned that violence has no place in
democracy. Therefore, they were asking those who still promote
instability on the streets to join political dialogue and to help
guide the country toward prosperity. "Armenia faces a series of
external challenges that we hope to address. First among them is the
long-standing conflict over who should control the Nagorno-Karabakh
region between our country and Azerbaijan; second is the normalization
of relations with Turkey. Only a government with wide popular support,
not one created through street violence, can successfully resolve these
problems. We will also continue to ask the international community to
recognize the Armenian genocide, though this issue should not prevent
us from moving forward."