On August 22, 2007, American diplomats, lead by US charge d’affairs Perina, visited Levon Ter-Petrosyan. For your information, at that time the media disseminated information about possible nomination of Armenia’s first president in the presidential election, but the first president had not made any official announcement about that.
On August 24, Perina sent a cable concerning that meeting, in which he made very interesting observations. LTP’s ideas are worth of discussion as well. The Wikileaks has published a cable concerning this meeting.
“Over the last several years, LTP has become a near-recluse in his lonely, government-supplied mansion overlooking the Hrazdan River Gorge; so seldom has he been seen in public that some had begun to wonder if the ex-president might be under house arrest. However, recent weeks have brought a modest boomlet in LTP news stories, as several opposition-leaning papers widely covered the ex-president’s series of visits to Armenia’s regions, and ANM-associated commentators have begun calling for LTP to Run,” writes Perina in the cable.
The most interesting part is about Stepan Demirchyan and Artashes Geghamyan. “LTP was noticeably livelier and more energized than when the previous CDA called on him last October. The ex-president lost little time in small talk before launching a candid exposition of the political scene and his own place in it. Without having to be asked, he volunteered that he was giving serious consideration to running for president in 2008, and was in active discussions with other opposition leaders to explore that possibility. He said he would make his decision by the end of September. He said that in addition to his own Armenian National Movement (ANM) party, Aram Sargsian’s Republic Party was also prepared to support his bid, as were the leaders of the ANM-derived "Alternative"/"Impeachment" movement. LTP had also spoken with Stepan Demirchian (People’s Party) and Artashes Geghamian (National Unity party), who had responded positively, but "you never know what they might say tomorrow." LTP said with those two it would all come down to the hard bargaining and what kind of a deal he would be able to strike with them in exchange for their support. "This is normal politics," he commented. LTP also thinks he has strong support among veterans’ groups, including the Yerkrapah movement. He said there were a number of business oligarchs who were quietly sympathetic to his candidacy, but they would have to be very cautious not to put their business interests at risk by openly supporting LTP too soon,” writes Perina in his cable.
“The former president said that if things continue on their current path, Serzh Sargsian will undoubtedly become president, despite what he said was the PM’s "absolute" lack of charisma. LTP was aware that any campaign would have to overcome some very significant obstacles. As he himself said, the first problem would be overcoming the "negative stereotypes" about LTP that now prevailed in popular opinion. The former president ascribed his bad public image to a consistent smear campaign that he claimed President Kocharian and his political cronies had conducted over the past ten
years, distorting LTP’s political record. He also felt that the Republican machine would employ all means, fair or foul, to favor PM Sargsian and disadvantage LTP. He also speculated that the Kremlin might throw its own support behind Sargsian,” writes Perina in the cable.
The ex-president called the current regime "criminal," lambasting Kocharian, Sargsian, and their cronies for massive abuses of power, corruption, misuse of the tax and customs services for personal and party enrichment, and other sins. LTP noted that his own administration had earned some black marks, but he insisted that his cabinet had been a paragon of virtue by comparison with the current one. The first president said that among the reasons for the negative attitude toward his image was the collapse of the USSR and the fact that they could not be under anyone’s control.