Unfortunately, Armenians may again be left with the pitiful “lesser of two evils” option. As much as they loathe the current ruling regime of provincial Karabakhis, they may come to realize that the re-emergence of LTP may be a greater evil. If, of course, his speech was not an intrigue that LTP’s shadowy external patrons wanted him to do to shake up the whole political scene before the election.

So, my hope is that LTP will bring those alternative figures with him, and in 2013 we will have a truly new and fresh candidate.

Who is the alternative to LTP?

H said…

Ironically most of you havent even been in Armenia in early 90’s. All the info about these years you got is from state controlled or biased TV.

First of all the idependence and the hardship was forced on Armenia when th USSR crambled and Azeris stated attackin Armenians in NKR. Any cauntry in history that was in a war and was under blocked went thru such hardship. In addition we were newly independent. However instead of loosing lands as we always did we gained them. And there was no civil war. Please try to put some logic and read more history.

On the other hand corruption is a thing that we inherited from Soviet times and Armenia is more corrupt than it used to be 10 years ago. The gap between rich and poor is even wider. And now we might end up with a chronic gambler President if Serj Sarkissian comes to power.

http://www.cilicia.com/2007/09/levon-ter-petrosian.html

“Haykakan Zhamanak” notes Rustamian’s remark that Dashnaktsutyun would welcome former President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s possible participation in the presidential elections. The paper says this means that Dashnaktsutyun is unlikely to make harsh personal attacks on Ter-Petrosian should the latter decide to run for president. It says such attacks would greatly help Sarkisian. He now risks being overshadowed by what would be an exciting ideological battle between Ter-Petrosian and the Dashnaktsutyun candidate, according to “Haykakan Zhamanak.”

“No,” one of the journalists said. “Nikol is my friend and it’s not true,” perhaps in an attempt to make Impeachment look like a new political force with a genuinely new agenda and to win the sympathy of the editor.

Anyway, after yesterday and the past few weeks, it would appear that I was right. I also believe that many civil society activists in receipt of international funding for pro-democracy election related activities are also hoping for his return too.

Time will tell, but I won’t be surprised if it becomes clear that this is the case. Moreover, I wonder whether a conflict of interests might now exist in some of the election-related funding currently being disbursed by USAID as a result, but more on that later.

There was at least one which I encountered during the parliamentary election, for example. That is a USAID-CASP recipient doing everything to support the radical opposition (i.e. Impeachment, Republic) even to the point of attempting to discredit or ignore other opposition and civil society groups as well as pro-governmental parties.

This has been coming since then, and I truly believe that the likes of Impeachment were established for the parliamentary election in preparation for LTP’s possible return. Still, nothing wrong with that. It’s politics and entirely normal, but just to say that it also marks a totally different situation from prior to the 2003 presidential election.

Back then there was also talk of LTP’s return, but it was nothing compared to now. This is far more serious although by no means certain. Still, my feeling from yesterday was that it’s entirely possible.