Armenia Declares State Of Emergency

YEREVAN, Armenia – Armenia’s president imposed a state of emergency on Saturday after protests against alleged fraud in last month’s presidential elections turned violent.

The announcement from the office of President Robert Kocharian came shortly after police fired shots in the air and tear gas to disperse about 15,000 demonstrators. Police earlier broke up a protesters’ tent camp housing hundreds of people.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) – Armenian police early Saturday morning forcefully dispersed a demonstration by several hundred opposition supporters who had camped out in the capital for more than a week to protest the results of presidential elections.

The police moved in before 7 a.m. and began forcing protesters onto buses. A few clashes broke out on the central Yerevan square.

The Armenian Health Ministry said 31 people, including six policemen, had sought treatment for injuries in the clash; it said 10 people were hospitalized, but did not state the severity of their injuries nor how many of them were police.

The opposition has protested the results of the Feb. 19 presidential election results and tried to force a new vote. Rallies daily have drawn tens of thousands of people; a few hundred remained at the square each night in tents.

About 2,000 demonstrators marched through Yerevan on Saturday afternoon, but many downtown streets and the square that had held the camp were closed off by police. Demonstrators threw trash on some cars and pounded on a police vehicle.

Officials say Prime Minister Serge Sarkisian – the favored successor of outgoing President Robert Kocharian – won the vote outright. But supporters of opposition candidate Levon Ter-Petrosian have rejected the results, alleging fraud.

The observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe said there were concerns about the vote count, but it issued a generally positive assessment.

Ter-Petrosian, a former president of Armenia, appealed to the Constitutional Court on Friday to overturn the results.

The standoff has raised concerns of instability in the poor Caucasus nation at the junction of the energy-rich Caspian Sea region and southern Europe, with Russia and Iran nearby.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)