Vahan Hovannisian Blasts Kocharian, Ter-Petrossian

RFE/RL reports that presidential candidate Vahan Hovannisian has blasted the current and previous president, blaming them both for a deterioration in living standards in the country since the Soviet collapse. Hovannisian has particular reason to be critical of Ter-Petrossian given that his party, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutyun (ARF-D), was banned during his time as president in the 1990s when corruption skyrocketed and assassinations as well as falsified elections defined political life in the country.

Hovannisian spent more than two years in jail. However, his fierce criticism of the current authorities is not so expected, but perhaps testimony to the fact that he is seriously contesting the 19 February presidential election. Some sources suggest that Hovannisian is particularly interested in gaining the support of Raffi Hovannisian’s Heritage party and if statements from the number two in the party, Larissa Alaverdian, are anything to go by, he seems to be earning more credibility by actually campaigning during this pre-election period.

Incidentally, Hovannisian criticized both administrations, and especially that of Ter-Petrossian, during last weekend’s pre-election campaign in Tavoush.

Hovannisian attacked the two mutually antagonistic forces as he campaigned in economically depressed areas south and east of Lake Sevan one day after they were visited by former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.

In a speech before more than a hundred people in the local town of Martuni, the deputy speaker of parliament said Armenia’s economic slump of the early 1990s was the result of “illiterate privatization” and other economic policies implemented by the Ter-Petrosian administration. “They privatized whatever they could for nothing, they sold off machines and other equipment of our plants, they operated nothing, they closed jobs,” he said.

“They are now again rising up. He [Ter-Petrosian] came here again and tried to pour poison into your ears. They are signing the song of the former authorities. But we won’t be deceived by that,” Hovannisian told the crowd, which was much smaller than the one pulled by Ter-Petrosian the previous day.

Hovannisian was also highly critical of the economic track record of the current Armenian government in which his party is represented by three ministers. He said Armenia’s double-digit economic is not broad-based and has been largely confined to the capital Yerevan.

“Have you felt the 12 percent growth on your skin?” asked the Dashnaktsutyun leader. “Are you better off by 12 percent? Has the [state] budget has been quadrupled? Yes, it has. Bravo! But have your living standards quadrupled? No.”

Photo: © Onnik Krikorian / Oneworld Multimedia 2008