During the rally on July 4 Levon Ter-Petrosyan brought a number of accusations against former president Robert Kocharyan. Mediamax news agency has asked Robert Kocharyan to comment on those accusations. Please read the exclusive interview given by Mr. Kocharyan to the Mediamax as it follows:
– Mr. Kocharyan, on July 4 during the rally Levon Ter-Petrosyan dedicated most part of his speech to addressing critics to you. What do you think about it? What is the reason?
– He has a complex of a loser. He has lost twice and he does not have the honor to accept his loss like a man. Besides that, it has always been easy to make former presidents an extreme target. In 1998 I didn’t do that since I thought that such behavior is not good. It is a behavior of a small person who has enmity. Sometimes I feel pity for him.
– There are vectors in the speeches of the first president targeted at you, which also includes extreme enmity toward you and some transparent hints concerning cooperation with the authorities in certain conditions. Do you think it is about tactics or it is a strategic step?
– I believe that Levon Ter-Petrosyan realizes that he has ultimately lost the election. He thinks that he has lost to me, but it is not true. Being the incumbent president at that time I only did my responsibility to protect the Constitutional order and recover the rule of law in the country. Ter-Petrosyan simply is not able to go out of the extreme opposition field. His owners and those who paid him will not allow him do that. As for extremism, it should be addressed at certain point and he is doing his best. Maybe he thinks that the authorities may like that and he will be given a card blanche for the crimes committed on March 1, meanwhile get an opportunity to show up at rallies without any obstacles. It is a possible tactical calculation. From the point of view of strategy I don’t exclude the possibility that he thinks that I am his main competitor for his future political struggle. I think that he will make a mistake again in terms of tactics and strategy.
– Levon Ter-Petrosyan spoke about many shortcomings during your presidency. Generally he means that you have ruined everything that is possible to ruin. What do you think about this?
– There is so much nonsense in his speech that it is not worthy to speak about everything separately. Very soon a book will be published, which contains official materials from the period of my presidency. It will be mere statistics without any emotions. This book contains the answers to all questions concerning the efficiency of my work. Any country and any president can be proud of such rapid growth. It would be funny to publish such book containing such information concerning the period of Ter-Petrosyan’s presidency. It’s up to people to compare. Neither the ANM nor he has left any bright memories in the minds of people to remember and show now. They are such sort of people who are staying in the history as effective destroyers. Even sometimes Ter-Petrosyan goes out of the limits so far that you suspect of his guiltiness. Maybe his psychological stance cannot bear such heavy load.
– Should people be reminded from time to time about what has been done and when certain things have been done? The young people who are at the age of 18-20 may not remember all those things.
– It is about the responsibility and moral characteristics of politicians. By the way, I don’t mean the opposition only. Both the authorities and the opposition may want to cheat the youth. I wander how well Ter-Petrosyan can see. What does he look at during his rallies? If he looks around he will not see any new buildings which have been built during his tenure. There are no new buildings which have been built during his office. Even if he looks down he will see that he is walking on a good asphalted road and lightened streets. He can also see that there are more cars in the streets now and those are mainly good foreign cars. If he looks around he will see the beautiful walls of cafes, shops, restaurants and many other interesting things. And if he manages to make some more effort, he will realize that all these things did not exist during his tenure. The roads were bad, streets were not lightened. I don’t want to remind about cafes and restaurants in order not to spoil the mood of our citizens. I wander whether his relatives tell him about the North Avenue after walking there. I also wander whether his eyes were closed on the way to the place of the rally in Gyumri. Amnesia or “poor eyesight” is almost a sickness for a politician.
– Ter-Petrosyan’s media alleges that you still continue ruling the country.
– It’s quite nonsense. If it were so, definitely Ter-Petrosyan would be imprisoned for his illegal and criminal activities (by the way, by doing so I would correct the mistake I made in 1998). Also the Turkish president would not be invited to Yerevan to watch to football play. Such publications have only one purpose – create new problems for the authorities. Those people should govern the country and bear responsibility, who are authorized by the Constitution. The power and responsibility are inseparable and cannot be shady. I believe so.