Kocharian has called the protests in Yerevan “temporary” in an interview.

“Our opposition, under the impression of Georgia’s events, has decided to stage a similar situation in Armenia,” he said. “But our reality cannot be compared with Georgia’s.”

Armenia’s President Robert Kocharian said a wave of opposition protests sweeping the country over the past several weeks was a “misunderstanding” and unlikely to continue for long.

“It is certainly a temporary phenomenon,” he said in an interview with the Izvestia daily.

Opposition parties in Armenia, a nation of three million people in the Caucasus mountains, have recently staged a series of protests, drawing comparisons with last year’s “rose revolution” that ousted the leadership in neighbouring Georgia.

“Our opposition, under the impression of Georgia’s events, has decided to stage a similar situation in Armenia,” he said. “But our reality cannot be compared with Georgia’s.”

The Armenian opposition says that Kocharian rigged a run-off presidential vote in March 2003 to secure a second term in office and is demanding that he step down.

But despite the widespread discontent in Armenia over low living standards, analysts say Kocharian is too strong, and the opposition too weak, for the Georgian scenario to be repeated in Armenia, the world’s first state to adopt Christianity.

Kocharian said the opposition would be allowed to proceed with protests as long as they did not cause major disruptions.

“If the opposition tries to attract attention to itself by blocking major thoroughfares or government buildings, then police will do what it is obligated to do,” he said.

Last Monday, the police broke up an anti-government demonstration in the capital Yerevan using water cannon and reportedly injuring dozens of protestors.