Levon Ter-Petrossian Courts Gagik Tsarukian

If presidential candidate Levon Ter-Petrossian’s campaign discourse appears to be getting more populist by the day through appeals to the enslaved masses to rise up and overthrow a corrupt ruling elite it sometimes appears to change depending on the situation. Today was no exception when not only did Ter-Petrossian’s press secretary send a message to the country’s oligarchs warning them they would lose their illegally gained fortunes under Sargsyan, but the former president himself set out to court the most notorious of them all.

It used to be that MP and former arm wrestler Gagik Tsarukian (aka Dodi Gago) was hated more than Sargsyan by Ter-Petrossian’s circle. That was certainly the case last year during the parliamentary election when Tsarukian’s newly formed Prosperous Armenia party came in second to Sargsyan’s Republicans and actually before. When Tsarukian’s bodyguards weren’t involved in shootouts or beating journalists, one of Ter-Petrossian’s main backers, Nikol Pashinian, used his Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper to paint the tycoon almost as if he was the devil personified.

Pashinian’s car mysteriously exploded soon after, but journalists at pro-opposition publications such as Hetq Online and RFE/RL persisted in publishing negative stories while today’s Ter-Petrossian supporters spent most of their time attacking him and others such as Lfik Samo through blogs or in verbal discourse. During last year’s parliamentary election, for example, Tsarukian was included alongside Kocharian and Sargsyan on posters by Ter-Petrossian’s main backers, Impeachment and Republic, as the three main enemies for the Armenian nation.

Now, it would seem, RFE/RL reports that everything has changed. Seems like Tsarukian isn’t such a bad guy after all, especially when his support is necessary to come to power although it does raise questions about the sincerity of campaign promises to fight corruption and redistribute wealth in the country.

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian on Tuesday heaped praise on one of Armenia’s wealthiest businessmen close to President Robert Kocharian and urged him to defect to the opposition camp.

Ter-Petrosian claimed that Gagik Tsarukian will end up losing his huge fortune if Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian becomes Armenia’s next president as he campaigned in areas north of Yerevan where the influential tycoon holds sway.

“I have come here to preach morality to Gagik Tsarukian because I believe that that person has not acted against his people to date,” he told hundreds of people attending his rally in the town of Abovian. “That person has morality. I will not preach morality to Serzh Sarkisian, Robert Kocharian and their cronies because they have no morality.”

“Dear Mr. Gagik Tsarukian, here are your people,” continued Ter-Petrosian. “Today you will make a choice. Either you will stand alongside your people, or will be doomed to remain a slave and be despised by these people forever. The choice is yours.”

Ter-Petrosian already issued a similar call to Tsarukian and other government-connected tycoons during a December rally in Yerevan. He said they will run the constant risk of losing their assets as long as Kocharian-Sarkisian duo remains in power. The ex-president went further during his subsequent campaign speeches, saying that all of them will become “tramps” if Sarkisian wins the February 19 election.