12:04, 22 April 2004

Meeting between opposition and pro-government Armenian politicians fails

The meeting between leaders of the coalition and the opposition through the mediation of the Council of Elders of the Forum of Intellectuals and former foreign minister Raffi Ovannisian designed for April 20 did not take place because representatives of coalition parties did not come. They motivated their non-attendance by saying they would not sit down to the bargaining table until the opposition renounced its prior conditions. Among those conditions were the demands: to release illegally arrested opposition activists, to punish organizers and executors of the April 13 beating of peaceful demonstrations, to give a political assessment of the happening.

The Council of Elders issued a statement the same day denouncing the position of the ruling coalition representatives and calling it ungrounded. The statement reads that the Council will keep on bending its efforts in order to establish a political dialogue between the political forces.

Author: Ashot Ter-Grigorian, CK correspondent

Source: Caucasian Knot