KGB ARSENAL OF PROVOCATIONS – WELL-KNOWN TO THEM

Not satisfying himself with the support received by “Republic” party leader Aram Sargsyan and Armenian People’s Party leader Stepan Demirtchyan, ex-President L. Ter-Petrosyan has been recently nourishing vain hopes of becoming the “legal successor” of Karen Demirtchyan and Vazgen Sargsyan.
In response to our questions, RPA Vice Chair RAZMIK ZOHRABYAN makes his comments on such “initiative” of earning dividends through political “pillaging”.

“Really, L. Ter-Petrosyan has been recently trying to make use of Vazgen Sargsyan’s political capital, saying that by voting for him we’ll vote for Vazgen Sargsyan. As a matter of fact, everybody knows well that the main factor of the 1998 shift of power was Vazgen Sargsyan, the first among the “well-known forces” demanding L. Ter-Petrosyan resignation. It was after those events that the political part of ‘Yerkrapah’ (defender of land) party joined the Republican under the leadership of Vazgen Sargsyan who became the RPA leader.
Today, it is really surprising that L. Ter-Petrosyan announces, ‘Vazgen Sargsyan is also coming with me, and we’ll win together.’ This is strange, especially considering that the resignation was first of all caused by L. Ter-Petrosyan’s defeatist policy with regard to the Karabakh issue to which Vazgen Sargsyan categorically opposed. After all this, it is not, mildly speaking, correct to speculate Vazgen Sargsyan’s name, introducing oneself as the bearer of his political capital.
This is a simple political trick, i.e. a pre-election PR, by which LTP anticipates to receive extra votes, profiting by the fact that Vazgen Sargsyan’s brother Aram Sargsyan and Karen Demirtchyan’s son Stepan Demirtchyan stand by him. But the people’s memory is not short, and such political tricks will not work.”
“In all his public speeches delivered after September 21, LTP has some way or another touched upon the Karabakh issue, either confirming or concealing his position with regard to the settlement of the conflict. Did it eventually become clear to you in what way the ex-President intends to “solve” the Karabakh issue and at the expense of what he is going to ‘make friends’ with Azerbaijan.”
“In 1998 L. Ter-Petrosyan clearly formulated his position, saying that we might reach an economic deadlock and Armenia would have no development if the Karabakh issue wasn’t solved ‘to the benefit of both parties’, that’s to say, based on the principle of self-determination inside the territory of Azerbaijan. This resulted in his resignation. Now he says, ‘we protect Karabakh’s right to self-determination’. But he won’t say what self-determination is being meant.
If someone declares that the Army should be reduced to 10-15 thousand servicemen, it’s in and off itself that having such an Army we’ll be unable to resist Azerbaijan whose army currently consists of 100 and thousand servicemen and which constantly increases its armaments, threatening to solve the Karabakh issue from the positions of strength. After all that, I think it’s clear what L. Ter-Petrosyan means by speaking about Karabakh’s right to self-determination. After reducing the Army and placing Karabakh under Azerbaijan’s protectorate, we’ll have no problem in terms of re-establishing the friendly ties with Azerbaijan.”
“What about the pre-election incidents that have become frequent recently? Can they have more dangerous manifestations, creating pre-requisites for a serious public confrontation?”
“I don’t think these shootings and small conflicts will have a serious development and give rise to serious civil clashes. Although, I have no doubt that the first President is trying to lead the electoral developments through this path. Otherwise, why should he have organized a car procession, blocking the way of the presidential column of cars and disobeying the car inspectors? Can you imagine how many cars we could bring to the streets if we were to follow their example? To create traffic jams in the town now, just because we are organizing a car procession?
L. Ter-Petrosyan is an experienced politician; he led the country for 8 years and has a good knowledge of the entire KGB arsenal. He has a good command of the forms of provocations, e.g. civil clashes, shootings at buildings, force structures etc. These are well-known KGB methods he is trying to make use of.”
“The possibilities of consolidating ‘Heritage’, ‘Rule of Law’ and Ter-Petrosyan are being much discussed during the recent period. Can this ‘subvert’ the logic of the pre-election processes?”
“Such internal negotiations have been discussed for a long time. One thing is clear: Arthur Baghdasaryan and L. Ter-Petrosyan were united through internal channels from the outset. There was simply a certain role-casting according to which LTP was to curse these authorities and be engaged in black PR, while Arthur Baghdasaryan was to appear in more constructive positions; later they would join each other and work together for participating in the elections at the first, second or third stage. It’s not yet clear which of them has more ambitions or who will be the first and who will be the second, but that they have been united to each other through internal channels for a long time is beyond any doubt.
The attitude of ‘Heritage’ is not yet clear, but because the party’s name has been mentioned both by L. Ter-Petrosyan and Arthur Baghdasaryan, there must be something underlying behind this. However, I don’t think that it may essentially change the pre-election situation and produce a serious impact on the election results.”
S. HAROUTYUNYAN

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