In 2008, Ter-Petrossian Asked US to Put Pressure on Authorities, But
US Didn’t Want to Get Involved
09.10.2011 15:18 epress.am
In a Feb. 21, 2008 confidential diplomatic cable sent to the US
Department of State, then US Charges d’Affaires in Yerevan Joseph
Pennington states that Levon Zurabyan, adviser to presidential
candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian, requested an urgent meeting with US
embassy officials in which he passed a note that he said was directly
from Ter-Petrossian (LTP).
`Aside from handing over the note, Zurabyan made two points orally.
First, that the campaign had information that authorities would
disrupt the LTP rally planned for 15:00 local that same day. Second,
he alleged that the authorities had deliberately left open the
possibility of modifying the published results, such that PM [Serzh]
Sargsyan’s results would fall under the 50 percent threshold, and thus
send the election to a second round. He said they had done this by
leaving some precinct results unverified. (COMMENT: He was not
entirely specific on this point, and we have no independent evidence
that this may be the case. However, we understand that something much
like this happened during one of President Kocharian’s two elections,
in which authorities backed away from an early announcement of an
absolute majority, to announced revised figures below 50 percent, in
the face of popular protests. END COMMENT), ‘ writes Pennington.
Zurabyan asserted that some 400 LTP candidate proxies or commission
members had been assaulted and ejected from polling places on election
day and noted that Ter-Petrossian rightfully won the election – `not
necessarily a majority but a plurality.’
The US diplomat then asked Zurabyan about planned marches to foreign
embassies based on a rumour the embassy had heard. Zurabyan said there
was talk of marching to the French embassy in protest over French
President Nicolas Sarkozy’s prompt congratulations message to
Sargsyan. Pennington urged all actions to be peaceful; Zurabyan
reaffirmed this was their plan, but expressed concern that
`authorities would intervene forcefully.’
The cable also includes the full text of Ter-Petrossian’s note, which
is as follows:
`The people are angry. They push us to resort to decisive actions. We
want to keep the movement within the legal framework and we are intent
to continue that way. However, doing so seems to be difficult, at some
point the situation may go out of control.
`The only way out is the second round in the presidential elections.
This will allow keeping the people’s movement within constitutional
confines.
`Our request is: to put pressure on the authorities to go this way.
Also, to put pressure on them not to disrupt our peaceful
manifestations, demonstrations and marches. They will not be able to
reject your pressure.’
The US diplomat concludes by saying the embassy has `no wish to be
drawn into the domestic political situation, but it is evident that
LTP hopes for exactly that. Whatever public statement we make is
likely to be seized upon by one side or the other, either to validate
the outcome or to indict it. We see no alternative, however, but to
continue to evaluate this election as objectively as we can, and
letting that analysis guide our public statements.’
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Disclaimer: This article was contributed and translated into English by Emil Lazarian. While we strive for quality, the views and accuracy of the content remain the responsibility of the contributor. Please verify all facts independently before reposting or citing.
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