Allies Confident Ter Petrosian Will Run

In what still remains the most talked about event in the run-up to the 2008 presidential election, allies of former President Levon Ter Petrosian say they are confident that he will run. And even if some paradoxically allege that Ter Petrosian’s possible nomination is being masterminded by the current authorities, those pushing Ter Petrosian’s candidacy are very definitely opposition.

This includes Impeachment’s Nikol Pashinian, Republic’s Aram Sarkisian, and the People’s Party’s Stepan Demirchian as well as senior members of HHSh. RFE/RL has more.

“Levon Ter-Petrosian’s nomination [as a presidential candidate] is irreversible. That is, it will definitely happen,” said Ararat Zurabian, chairman of the Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh), the former ruling party of the ex-president is the unofficial top leader.

“As the first president said, he has not yet made a final decision [to contest the vote,]” Zurabian told reporters. “But I believe things are moving towards that decision.”

[…]

Aram Sarkisian, whose radical opposition Hanrapetutyun party also strongly backs Ter-Petrosian, made a similar point in an interview with RFE/RL. He claimed that Ter-Petrosian, who led Armenia to independence in 1991, is popular enough to return to power.

“Our contacts with the public show that a huge section of Armenia’s population thinks that if a prudent, pragmatic person like Ter-Petrosian … decides to stand, he will win,” said Sarkisian. “I am convinced that the day after the statement by the first president [on his nomination] scores of people will converge on the Yerevan square with flags,” he added.

[…]

Both the HHSh and Hanrapetutyun regard Ter-Petrosian as the only politician capable of thwarting a planned handover of power from Kocharian to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. They hope that other major opposition groups will also rally around the ex-president. But so far only one of them, the People’s Party (HZhK) of Stepan Demirchian, has been ready to consider doing that.

Demirchian, who was Kocharian’s main challenger in the last presidential election, denied on Wednesday some Ter-Petrosian associates’ claims that his endorsement of the ex-president is a forgone conclusion. “As long as the first president has not announced his nomination, the HZhK can not decide to support him,” he told RFE/RL.

Still, Demirchian made it clear that he has a high regard for Ter-Petrosian while agreeing with much of the criticism of Armenia’s former leadership. “Let us not forget that the country was at war then,” he said. “There were mistakes, very negative phenomena, manifestations of irresponsibility and impunity. But those negative phenomena are now much more deeply rooted in our life.”

Nikol Pashinian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Meanwhile, the press continues to also focus on Ter Petrosian’s likely comeback and his much publicized speech. In particular, the papers view that, along with Kocharian’s rebuttal and counter attack, in ways that represent their political allegiances and orientation. No surprise there, then, although there are some interesting comments from former Karabakh strong man Samuel Babayan and a senior figure in Stepan Demirchian’s People’s Party.

Aram Safarian, a senior member of the pro-presidential Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), tells “Hayots Ashkhar” that he was not impressed by Ter-Petrosian’s Friday speech. “Levon Ter-Petrosian did not come up even with a new, alternative ploy,” he says. “He presented himself with old ideas that were already flatly rejected by the people … How can you return to politics with old, ineffective techniques, rejected ideas and try to push the political field back to an environment of mutual hatred?”

“Hayk” attacks President Robert Kocharian for “threatening” Ter-Petrosian on Tuesday. The pro-Ter-Petrosian paper ridicules Kocharian’s remark that Yerevan streets are now much better lit than they were under his predecessor. “Kocharian, who was a field commander in the past, will probably find time to recall how many dollars a single day of war with Azerbaijan took away from Armenia,” it says. […]

“I have a lot of respect for the first president but our views on the settlement of the Artsakh (Karabakh) problem seem to remain radically different from each other,” Samvel Babayan, Karabakh’s former army commander, tells “Zhamanak Yerevan.” “If Levon Ter-Petrosian decides to stand [in the elections] and presents his programs, it will be easier to note the similarities and differences in our views and to draw certain conclusions.”

A senior member of the opposition People’s Party (HZhK), Ruzan Khachatrian, tells “Zhamanak Yerevan” that Kocharian’s remark that Ter-Petrosian will become an “ordinary opposition politician” if he joins the presidential race was a thinly veiled threat. “Being an ordinary oppositionist in Armenia means that they can attack your office, smash, arrest and do other things,” she says. “Being an ordinary oppositionist in Armenia means being in danger.”

For now, anything is possible and it appears almost certain that Ter Petrosian’s public attack on the current government and president was designed as one last way to “test the water” before making his decision to run or not. For now at least, it would appear that it’s more likely than not although nothing in Armenian politics is certain.

Ararat Zurabian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Stepan Demirchian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007

Aram Sarkisian, HHSh Independence Day Reception, Marriott Armenia, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2007