OPPONENTS OF IRAQ WAR SUPPORT ARMENIAN PRESIDENT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The oppositional leaders continue to insist the announced figures do not reflect the real results. During the week after the elections supporters of Demirchyan were carrying out mass protest acts demanding to announce the elections invalid. Last several days a picket under the slogan: ''Stepan Demirchyan is the President elected by people'' is being held. Unlike his supporters, Stepan Demirchyan has never said he considered himself elected President. He just speaks about falsifications. According to the candidate, the index of participation of the voters has been artificially increased. ''I do not declare myself President. I only say I do not believe that Robert Kocharian got more than million of votes,'' Demirchyan told a press conference held immediately after the elections. The leader of the Peoples' Party is going to dispute the results of the voting in the Constitutional Court. At the same time, he is now getting ready also for the parliamentary elections to be held in the end of May. Demirchyan is sure that he will manage to gain revenge in the National Assembly as his father did 5 years ago. (A year later after the Presidential elections Karen Demirchyan became the speaker of the Parliament).

If Demirchyan is already ready to put up with the results of the elections, his main supporters, the leaders of the ''Republic'' party – no. The tension is deepening because the name of the leader of this radical political force is being connected with the investigation of murder of Tigran Naghdalyan, the Head of the board of the Public TV and Radio. As it is known, last week the law enforcement bodies arrested the 6 executors and organizers of the murder. It has been revealed that the mediator between the killer and the orderer of the crime, which is yet unknown, was the cousin of the leader of the ''Republic'' party. Among the members of the criminal group there is another relative of the leader of the party. The fact that the investigation bodies try to find the threads of the crime among the opposition makes the supporters of Stepan Demirchyan nervous.

Meanwhile, the influence of Great Powers on the events taking place in Armenia becomes more and more evident. Press Secretary of the US State Department Richard Boucher made a statement Thursday indirectly provoking the Armenian opposition. The spokesman made it understand that Washington would comprehend the protests of the opposition. Moscow, Paris and Beijing took a radically oppositional position. Presidents Putin, Chirak and Dzemin sent to Robert Kocharian congratulatory messages before the Central Electoral Commission announced the name of the elected President, and the local commentators interpreted this fact as an evidence of support to the incumbent President.

It was striking that the congratulations sent to Kocharian before the announcement of the final results by the CEC were made by the leaders of those countries which are against the intention of the USA to start a war against Iraq. Once again Armenia becomes a mean for sorting out the relationship between the Great Powers.