The first president of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan will continue with surprises. This was announced yesterday by ANM board chair Ararat Zurabyan.
He assures that the authorities are confused after the recent surprising meeting with ARF and Ter-Petrosyan’s visit to Karabakh and meeting with president Bako Sahakyan. As a fact of such confusion he said that just following that visit prime minister Serzh Sargsyan visited Karabakh too. As for the mentioned surprises, Bako Sahakyan did not exclude the possibility that the first president might meet with representatives of ARP and PA too. However, in answer to a question concerning such possibility he replied that nothing was excluded. He assures that during the upcoming presidential elections the voters will chose between two persons – Serzh Sargsyan and Levon Ter-Petrosyan. “If Serzh Sargsyan realizes that there is no sense to enter into competition with such politician as Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he will not do so as he will lose,” said Ararat Zurabyan. Yesterday he said that the first president of Armenia had “visible solutions” for the conflict of Karabakh. He also discussed the recent announcement of Harutyun Arakelyan to leave the negotiations on the conflict of Karabakh and the bill of “Heritage” party to recognize the independence of Karabakh. According to Ararat Zurabyan if Armenia leaves the process of negotiations there will be a danger of war. He thinks that no one in Armenia wants war with Azerbaijan since “it is not logical”. He thinks that Armenia may leave the negotiations only in case it does have no expectations from such negotiations. As for the current phase, he thinks that now there are good opportunities to succeed, thus the process should continue. Concerning the mentioned bill on the part of “Heritage” party he said that it was not a solution, but just an action, which might support or damage the process of negotiations. Mr. Zurabyan says that the exclusion of the process of negotiations means creation of a new situation, which may be hard for Armenia. As for the bill, he thinks it was more targeted at Azerbaijan than Armenia or Karabakh. As for the specific version of settlement proposed by ANM, Mr. Zurabyan said that “there has been one thing that is very important for ANM, which is that a document has been signed, which does not have the signature of the authorities of Karabakh” – said A. Zurabyan and added that the parties should do their best to have agreed view and interests in terms of the conflict. Otherwise, as he said, it is impossible to solve the problem. He also reminded that the existing authorities of Armenia had come to power during a very critical period in Armenia by using the issue of Karabakh for their purposes.
P.S. Ararat Zurabyan also answered to a question concerning the possibility whether former mayor of Yerevan and minister of internal affairs Vano Siradeghyan would return to Armenia. “Siradeghyan is a political refugee. If there is a political system in Armenia, which may allow any person, who has been unfairly accused by the despotic system, to justify himself in the court, he will return,” assured Zurabyan. It is worth mentioning that there are rumors that Siradeghyan may return. By the way, there are rumors that the authorities have given an opportunity to Siradeghyan to return, however he said that would agree to return only with a condition that the court considers his case and justifies him exclusively by a court resolution.