Speaking at a rally, ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan gave Sargsyan until the beginning of September to start formal negotiations with his alliance and “finally make up his mind on the issue of fresh elections.” He warned that failure to do so would prompt the ANC to demand Sargsyan’s immediate resignation.
“We will demand the immediate resignation of the coalition and Serzh Sargsyan,” stated the first President of Armenia on the June 30 rally. This time Ter-Petrosyan clearly demanded from the government to build a delegation to negotiate with them. Otherwise the Congress doesn’t wish to play hide and seek and go door-to-door to different officials to talk. Let us recall that the ANC wants that dialogue to take the form of official negotiations between special delegations appointed by the two sides. The president and his party have repeatedly rejected this format. After the release of the political prisoners the Congress built a group of negotiators from among the ANC. After the rejection the President said that the opposition may discuss the issues of their concern with the Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, NA Chairman Hovik Abrahamyan and Chief of Staff of RA President Karen Karapetyan. This meant that the oppositionists were supposed to go to the Parliament, Government and the President’s Office. Thus, having not directly rejected the suggestion of the opposition Serzh Sargsyan seemingly stretched its realization. And so this dialog, which is so much lauded by the government and the opposition, never takes place. And the opposition doesn’t find it expedient to realize it the way the government wants. What are the authorities planning to do this time or what is their opinion about the demands of the Congress to hold snap elections? It is almost impossible to receive any comments about the demands of the Congress from the Prosperous Armenia and Legal State parties. Their representatives abstain to comment of the demands of the opposition on Sargsyan’s resignation. At this point the Prosperous Armenia abstains from concrete policies and approaches. They probably await the agreements and developments between the first and the third Presidents. During this period the Prosperous Armenia has only welcomed this idea. As of the Legal State party then there is even no need to expect anything from the party or its leader Artur Baghdasaryan. There is no need to expect that the latter would say nothing that would differ from the President’s. In this case we should expect response from the Republican Party of Armenia. RPA spokesman Edward Sharmazanov insisted that while being open to “constructive” proposals from the ANC, the Armenian authorities have no intention to bring forward the next parliamentary and presidential elections due in 2012 and 2013 respectively. “Unlike some deluded individuals, the authorities have long made up their mind and they see no political and legal reasons for pre-term elections in our country,” Sharmazanov said. “Also, the constitution doesn’t allow us to hold pre-term elections.” “The Congress leader used to be president and he knows very well that talking with ultimatums and setting deadlines is not a language of democracy,” he said. “The language of democracy is dialogue which we have proposed to them.” The ANC wants that dialogue to take the form of official negotiations between special delegations appointed by the two sides. The president and his party have repeatedly rejected this format. “In the entire post-Soviet region I haven’t seen a case where the president of a country is offering to voice in parliament sound and constructive proposals from the extra-parliamentary opposition,” said Sharmazanov. “What else do they want?” The latter didn’t agree that the dialog between the opposition and government doesn’t become reality because of the President. “I don’t agree with that. We have already said that all officials, including the prime minister, parliament speaker and the head of the President’s staff are ready for the dialogue. ANC labels this as "a door-to-door policy" which is illogical and incomprehensive for us. This is a serious political process. If the ANC does not want to negotiate with the prime minister, parliament speaker, who is it going to negotiate with? The aforesaid people are Serzh Sargsyan’s representatives. And these people have the power to respond and speak to their issues,” said Sharmazanov. Let us remember that days ago ANC member Aram Sargsyan expressed confidence that Serzh Sargsyan will respond to them again. The same confidence was expressed by Ter-Petrosyan as well during the rally. “The President carefully follows the internal political processes and when need is he says his decisive word. I am not authorized to respond instead of him. I can only draw observations based on facts. And I can say that during these year he never ignored any of the raised key concerns or issues,” said Sharmazanov. Let us also add that during his last rally Ter-Petrosyan said that no matter how stubborn the authorities are they will have to face the reality and sooner or later they will have no choice but to hold snap elections. Considering the issues related to political prisoners and Freedom Square they would concentrate on revealing the crime of March 1 and that even though the law-enforcement bodies have become engaged in implementing the instruction given by Serzh Sargsyan on 20 April 2011, one gets the impression that the people are witnessing new mockery. According to Ter-Petrosyan, Serzh Sargsyan’s instruction is uncertain because it only envisages a sweep and activation in the revelation of the events of March 1. With that said, Ter-Petrosyan said no matter how stubborn Armenian authorities are and no matter how much they try to win time, they will be imposed to hold snap elections sooner or later. “I wish that the heads of the regime would be reasonable and would eventually decide to hold snap elections in the next two months. If not, the reasonable timeframe will be considered expired in September and the only demand on the agenda will be the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan and the ruling coalition,” announced Ter-Petrosyan.