“There is no candidate like Levon Ter-Petrosyan in Russia,” yesterday said politician Alexander Iskandaryan at “Hayeli” club, “I don’t think there isn’t anyone with Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s potential and skills in Russia, just the political regime is built differently there”.
Journalists asked whether there are any common systematic developments in Russia, Armenia and Georgia. Likewise, when Khachatur Sukiasyan announced that he was supporting Ter-Petrosyan to run for president, the taxation bodies started conducting inspection of the Sukiasyans’ businesses to the extent that Bjni mineral water factory terminated its operation soon. In Georgia oligarch Badri Patarkacishvili announced that he was supporting the opposition, and now he has escaped to London and is under search. “No, they are different too. Just there is no such businessman in Russia. Khodorovski is in prison, Berezovski is under search. We are different. We are in different situations. There aren’t such candidates and such oligarchs in Russia, who would manage to come up and say that they are supporting a candidate from the opposition,” Iskandaryan said.
Answering to a question whether Ter-Petrosyan will be the candidate supported by the opposition, the ARP spokesman, Edward Sharmazanov said that he didn’t think Levon Ter-Petrosyan would be the main candidate supported by the opposition and that he neither thought that there would be two main directions during the elections, one of which would be led by Ter-Petrosyan and the other one by ARP leader Serzh Sargsyan. “However, I think that there will be third direction too,” Sharmazanov said, “It is not excluded that the second leading direction of the opposition may be Arthur Baghdasaryan or Vazgen Manukyan, or another candidate. It is just a great sensation that the first president has come up and spoken after keeping silence for over ten years, thus people listen to his speeches attentively. However, I think that as far as the pre-election processes have not started it is soon yet to say who the opposition candidate will be since when they say “opposition candidate”, they understand that they mean Ter-Petrosyan. I think that they should not underestimate the other politicians since those politicians, despite the first president, have stayed in politics during the past ten years”.
Many other pro-government politicians share Sharmazanov’s opinion too and they say that Ter-Petrosyan’s rating is not sufficient to the extent of being the second candidate.
TV companies and research institutions are periodically conducting polls and announcing one after the other that the second places have been given to Artashes Geghamyan, Arthur Baghdasaryan, Raffi Hovhannisyan, and Vazgen Manukyan. Despite the fact that, as Sharmazanov says, when people say “opposition candidate” they understand Levon Ter-Petrosyan, he has always been in the latest places. A question originates: isn’t the idea of presenting A. Baghdasaryan and V. Manukyan as the potential second candidates pushed by the authorities? Certainly, Sharmazanov does not think so. Iskandaryan thinks that there will be more opposition candidates, but he believes the main rival will be held between S. Sargsyan and L. Ter-Petrosyan. He thinks that the creation of a third force will be beneficial for the authorities. Answering to a question whether there may be a color revolution in Armenia such as in some other post-Soviet states Iskandaryan said that he couldn’t say since the rival had not started yet and there was no imagination of the potential cooperation between the parties.
“The color revolution is a technology, which is used in post-election periods by the political forces, which don’t agree with the outcome of elections,” said Iskandaryan, “However, it is soon yet to speak about such processes in Armenia. The pre-election campaign has not started officially yet. We can’t say what will happen after the elections”. As for Sharmazanov, he believes such revolution cannot happen in Armenia, “It cannot happen since the quality of the life is being improved through reformations. It is impossible due to several reasons. First, in order to make a revolution there should be a corresponding situation in the country. In countries, where elections are organized in more transparent and democratic conditions each time, there can not be any revolution. I think that there can’t be a revolution, change of authorities in Armenia since there is no civic demand for it”.