Levon Ter-Petrossian Claims Baghdasarian, Hovannisian Support
RFE/RL reports that presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian claims that Orinats Yerkir leader Artur Baghdasarian and Heritage’s Raffi Hovannisian have agreed to endorse his bid to return to power. Actually, Ter-Petrossian’s words were a little more vague, but considering how RFE/RL has reported this, it should now be up to Orinats Yerkir and Heritage to issue a statement confirming or denying the story.
Addressing supporters in the regional capital Vanadzor later in the day, Ter-Petrosian claimed that two other prominent opposition leaders, Artur Baghdasarian and Raffi Hovannisian, have agreed to endorse his presidential bid. “I have serious reason to state that Artur Baghdasarian and Raffi Hovannisian too will join us because this is already becoming a national-liberation struggle,” he said.
Baghdasarian, another presidential candidate, will be holding a pre-election campaign rally in Yerevan’s Liberty Square on Sunday and so there shouldn’t be long to wait. Either way, both parties cannot remain silent on this matter although it is interesting to note that Heritage’s number two, former human rights ombudsperson Larissa Alaverdian, effectively criticized Ter-Petrossian yesterday.
Alaverdian said that only four candidates, Vazgen Manukian, Arman Melikian, Vahan Hovannisian and Artur Baghdasarian, were “within the limits of the culture of preelection campaign.” Ter-Petrossian was not among them and she specifically pointed to the conduct of deeply flawed elections held under the former president in 1995-6 as reason for the lack of any civilized political or democratic culture in Armenia.
Certainly, Heritage and Orinats Yerkir must immediately respond to Ter-Petrossian’s claims which appear to have been interpreted somewhat prematurely by RFE/RL. Significantly, no other news outlet — including pro-radical opposition publications — are reporting this news.
- Published:
- 02.01.08 / 11pm by Onnik
- Category:
- Armenia, Armenia Presidential Election 2008, Campaign, Candidates, News Briefs, Opinion, Parties, Rallies, Regions, Revolution
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