THE PRESIDENTIAL PLOT THICKENS: LTP MAKES FIRST PUBLIC OVERTURES AT RETURN TO POLITICS

The moment Armenia’s ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan broke his decade-long silence at Marriott Hotel in Yerevan during an event dedicated to the 16th anniversary of Armenia’s Independence, his speech has become a subject for discussions and debates within political circles. Ter-Petrosyan did not state his certain participation in next year’s presidential election, but instead he said that he would welcome anyone who would purport to become the single candidate and who would manage to rally all forces around himself. “As for me, I’d say: today I am still studying, I am still weighing it up, I am still discussing. My approach is purely political. I cannot be guided by emotions. Adventurism is alien to my character. Unless I know how effective my future steps will prove, I won’t make a step,” Ter-Petrosyan said.
Nevertheless, it was enough for discussions to become hotter for those who are awaiting the first president’s nomination and for those who also oppose such a move.
Talking to the media, President Robert Kocharyan said that he has not ever said anything about the first president for ten years.
“I think that the first president should be in some circumstances connected with the establishment of our statehood with certain solemnity. If the first president enters a political struggle, then he will become an ordinary opposition figure, and we will have to remind him of many things. For example how many streets were lit in Yerevan in 1993, etc.,” Kocharyan said.
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF-Dashnaktsutyun) Bureau member, Deputy Parliament Speaker Vahan Hovhannisyan says that the presidential election will be more ideological if Ter-Petrosyan is nominated and from being tactical the election will turn into a strategic one. But, anyway, Hovhannisyan did not like the circumstance that the first president spoke only about negative phenomena in the country turning a blind eye on the positive things.
Ter-Petrosyan said in his speech: “Today, we are standing at the fork, facing a big dilemma. We have two paths ahead of us. The first is to preserve what exists today, that is a corrupt, criminal regime from top to bottom of the state, or more precisely of the authorities, whose relations are settled not by laws, but by the rules of the underworld.
“It’s a totally Mafiosi regime structured to the last nuance which has relegated us to similar regimes of the third world.”
According to the first president, the existence of such authorities does not promise that the country can ever get out of this condition. He sees a solution to the problem today in dismantling the system, getting rid of the system.
In response to Ter-Petrosyan’s criticism, Robert Kocharyan said that from the previous administration he had inherited a $300 million budget in its expenditure pattern and about a $40 million budget gap.
“Next year’s budget in Armenia will be about $2.5 billion. This means that the country’s budget will have increased eight times. A person has to isolate himself so much in order not to see these successes,” Kocharyan said.
Secretary of the Heritage faction in parliament, political analyst Stepan Safaryan thinks that Kocharyan’s response to Ter-Petrosyan’s speech was improper and not becoming of the president.
“Despite their differences, that response was not becoming of the country’s president. It was cutting and cheap. An outgoing president should have particularly welcomed his predecessor. Cowardice is not becoming of the authorities. Meanwhile, Ter-Petrosyan’s speech obviously and noticeably stirred turmoil in the pro-government wing of the political field,” Safaryan says.
Responding to Ter-Petrosyan’s estimations of the current authorities and their system, the leader of the National-Democratic Union (NDU), Vazgen Manukyan, says:
“Speaking of that, he must remember that the very same accusations were made against him as well during his time as president. Consequently, he could not construct his speech as if he is a newcomer and sees and criticizes all that. He should have given explanations why it was like that during his time, what was his share of responsibility in that, whether it was possible to do it differently back then.”
National-Democratic Bloc Party Chairman Arshak Sadoyan says that Ter-Petrosyan considers only the efficiency of his entry to politics, that is about his security.
“As to how easily he [Ter-Petrosyan] will again be on the top. Under these conditions it sounds like a scorn. It’s like – I don’t care about what happens to the country, if it involves risks for me, why should I join in the game?” Sadoyan says.
Safaryan says that he considers Ter-Petrosyan’s speech, which also contained a political assessment, to be a civilized return to major politics.
“The first president enjoys great prestige, experience of many years. With his entry to politics he will make the election struggle hotter. However, I should also say that with his speech Levon Ter-Petrosyan also left room for a step back,” Safaryan says.
And the NDU leader says that regardless of his opinion of Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s political activities, he welcomes his return to politics.
“I have always called for his return to politics,” Manukyan says.
In his speech, Ter-Petrosyan mentioned a Karabakh problem settlement as a paramount issue for the country, but stopped short of suggesting an option for solving the problem.
“The biggest offense of the current authorities is in here. The settlement of this problem has reached a hopeless state during these ten years,” he said.
Dashnaktsutyun’s Vahan Hovhannisyan was astonished by the first president’s failure to offer any solution in connection with this problem.
“A question arises in this case: with what new things is he coming back, what is he coming to do?” Hovhannisyan says.
Member of parliament Victor Dallakyan says regarding Ter-Petrosyan’s strong-worded assessments and his position on the atmosphere created in the country: “It is logical that Levon Ter-Petrosyan should be nominated. But it is his problem, and he stated that he doesn’t have a decision yet. I think that Levon Ter-Petrosyan can pick himself up and form a pole of right-wing liberal forces.”
According to Dallakyan, the nominations of the republic’s first president and a candidate from Dashnaktsutyun will make the election struggle interesting in terms of ideology and programs.
At the end of his speech Levon Ter-Petrosyan once again mentioned that he doesn’t have a decision yet, and when he makes up his mind, he is convinced that he will be able to give his convincing explanations to the public.
During his official visit to Moscow early this week, Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sargsyan, responding to media questions, announced his possible participation in next year’s presidential election. Speaking of the possible single candidate from the opposition, he said:
“I am little interested in them and to be frank we will not invent any new thing, we will continue the policy that we started during the parliamentary elections, we will work in the name of something and not against someone. The success of the Republican Party in the parliamentary elections does not mean that competition for the leaders of other political parties will become pointless.”

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