Are they asking him to run for the third term?

28/02/2007

It turns out that President of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh Arkadi Ghukasyan is not the one wishing to run for the third term, but rather representatives of different countries who ask him to nominate himself during the upcoming elections in Nagorno-Karabakh. But as Arkadi Ghukasyan says, he does not want to be president of Nagorno-Karabakh again. Arkadi Ghukasyan dispersed an address regarding this on Wednesday.

“Every day, average citizens of Nagorno-Karabakh, representatives of different political and non-governmental organizations, government officials, parliamentarians, our compatriots from Armenia, the Armenian Diaspora, friends of Artsakh from the Diaspora, as well as well-known diplomats, politicians, political activists and benefactors ask me to put forward my candidature during the upcoming presidential elections because the Constitution of Nagorno-Karabakh approved by the people provides the president with that opportunity. However, any president that respects himself can’t say one thing today and another thing the next. I express my heartfelt gratitude to all the citizens of the republic and our foreign allies for defending my domestic and foreign policies and honestly wishing to see me in this post again, but I announce once again that I am not planning to run for president of Nagorno-Karabakh”.

Underlining once again the opportunities given by the Constitution of Nagorno-Karabakh approved last year, Arkadi Ghukasyan said that “unfortunately, some Armenian and Nagorno-Karabakh mass media” are the reason for announcements regarding his re-election and the news continues to “abuse the closed subject” regarding his running for the third term.

 “However, knowing the people taking advantage of politics and the presses’ manners, I am almost certain that my address will not put an end to the false rumors flying around about that topic. You can’t do anything about that; it seems that in this case, we are dealing with an incurable disease. I simply feel sorry for those people,” as stated in the address of Arkadi Ghukasyan.
 
According to A. Ghukasyan, recently there are tries to present his announcement about how he doesn’t find his running for the third term as suitable based on political and moral point of views as a game which is aimed to “stupefy” public opinion. That kind of behavior can only hurt Nagorno-Karabakh, which believes in European values and its international reputation. In fact, according to Ghukasyan, these abuses make the public more nervous and cause it to split.

“I made the announcement last October that was supposed to clear up all issues concerning me running for the third presidential term with the purpose of avoiding the false speculations regarding my future intentions. However, one announcement made by the president of Nagorno-Karabakh was not enough for some presses and politicians. Apparently, they find that the president is obligated to affirm his refusal to run for the term every day and motivate them to take such steps with their slander. Of course, I could disregard the misbehavior of those people if they didn’t continue doing that and hurting the society. Those people think of everything to defame the president. The presses immediately present whatever happens in Nagorno-Karabakh or out of its borders directly tied to me with the current president’s hidden intentions to participate in the Nagorno-Karabakh presidential elections.”

Let’s just hope that one day Arkadi Ghukasyan will not spread an announcement, saying that he could not stand the pleads of average Nagorno-Karabakh citizens, representatives of different political and non-governmental organizations, government officials, parliamentarians, our compatriots from Armenia, the Armenian Diaspora, Artsakh’s foreign allies, as well as well-known foreign diplomats, political activists and politicians and thousands of benefactors and is nominating himself.

P.S. It is assumed that after Ghukasyan’s announcement, certain political powers in Karabakh will start talking out in the open about the possible presidential candidates and there are many names-Bako Sahakyan, Masis Mailyan, Ashot Ghulyan, Seyran Ohanyan, Armen Sarkisyan and others. The political powers, as they have promised, will announce the names of the candidates after their assemblies scheduled for February-March.

Besides Arkadi Ghukasyan, leader of the “Movement ‘88” political party and mayor of Stepanakert Edward Aghabekyan has also announced about not running for president during a press conference. He has underlined that he personally is not thinking about putting up his candidacy, however “the political party’s position on nominating a candidate is still undecided”.