After conducting pre-election campaign in 5 RA marzes, the ANC organized a rally in Yerevan. As usual, the ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan delivered a long speech. A few single-mandate candidates from the ANC, the party leaders of the parties included in the ANC, namely Hrant Bagratyan, Stepan Demirchyan, Levon Zurabyan, Nikol Pashinyan, Vladimir Karapetyan delivered speeches as well. It is worth mentioning that the greater part of the Liberty square where the rally was to be conducted was occupied by the stage prepared for Andrea Bocceli’s concert, which impeded the rally. A small stage was prepared for the ANC leaders. The rally started 40 minutes later. Levon Ter-Petrosyan delivered a long speech almost offhanded. He spoke about the artificially created obstacles by the government to impede their election campaign, external and inner political issues, party platform, plans and resolutions, which the ANC will bring into life if they come to power. Beside future plans, Levon Ter-Petrosyan referred to the former and incumbent presidents as well: Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan. The ANC leader spoke about the dialogue with the government and mentioned that this was the most essential political event in the history of the independent Armenia and the base of the civilized political culture and this has to become the Bible of the political conduct of the government and the opposition. As a result of this dialogue the government realized their precondition: liberated the political prisoners, returned the Liberty Square to the people and took the responsibility to reveal the March 1 events. “When this issue was solved we kept our promise and held a dialogue with the government. Some people said that this was a deal. We saw how this deal ended,”-stated the ANC leader adding that but for the dialog and the fulfillment of demands as a result of the dialog, the revelation of the March 1 events would not be the main requirement from the RA government by the European Parliament. “They blame us for not cooperating with the opposition. We have created a joint headquarters with the ARF, PAP, and Heritage with a view to monitor the legitimacy of elections. These parties have never been friendly to each other. They competed, accused each other. But the most important is that these parties united their efforts to fight for justice. Everybody understands that the election violations have to be stopped. We need free and fair elections. The main aim of this criminal administration and the media which serves them is to destroy this joint headquarters, which is ranked as more important than the victory against Azerbaijan,” said Ter-Petrosyan. “They feel that this headquarters is dangerous. All the parties included in it have a representative in all levels of election commissions and four proxies of each political party. There will be 10 party poll watchers in each polling station which will not Serzh Sargsyan and his supporters do what they did during the previous elections. This is an effective tool for election monitoring. And in case these four parties truly cooperate, the RPA and Serzh Sargsyan will not be able to win any elections any more. However one of the members of the headquarters acts really weird and this member is the Heritage party.” Levon Ter-Petrosyan also said that the ANC has set rules to actively participate in all the activities guaranteeing the legality of elections and in particular the activities of the joint oversight committee. He targeted his campaign against the two governmental parties – RPA and Legal State and avoid criticism addressed to the three parties included in the joint oversight committee. In the case of having candidates in the same constituency the ANC agrees to be tolerant and supportive to the candidates of the parties included in the committee. He also spoke about the crimes of the ruling regime. According to them their biggest crime is the migration. According to him because of the Kocharyan-Sargsyan regime over one million people left them homes for other countries. He also added that this number is comparable to the genocide and deportation of the Ottoman Turkey. “These people that demand the world to recognize the Armenian Genocide do almost the same genocide within their own country. And this is not only my opinion. Remember the words of the Armenian Ambassador to Switzerland Charles Aznavour,” stated Ter-Petrosyan. In his words the aftermath of this regime is the high level of corruption. According to the international assessment of the level of corruption in Armenia, shadow economy makes two third of Armenia’s economy. “This means that only one third of the country’s wealth is going to the budget. The rest is being robbed. If this money went to the budget then it would be possible to double the pensions, benefits and salaries even today, triple the military expenses, scientific funds, etc. And these people, who are robbing their own country, want to beat Azerbaijan at war the second time,” stated Ter-Petrosyan. He also spoke about the foreign policy – Armenia-Turkey relations and the NKR conflict. He thinks the Armenian and Turkish relations were complicated by President Sargsyan and the ex-president Kocharyan, noting that he does not fear to resolve these issues if he comes to power because the main resolution, according to him, is the replacement of the illegitimate government with a legitimate government. He noted that Kocharyan made a fatal mistake in regard to the Karabakh issue when he left Karabakh out of the talks. “If these issues are not solved, that referendum will simply be a trap, a ploy to dupe the Armenian people,” the former Armenian president said in a lengthy late-night speech. Armenian officials have said before that under the proposed settlement the Karabakh Armenians would be able to vote for independence or reunification with Armenia in the would-be referendum. The Azerbaijani government insists, however, they would only be able to determine the extent of Karabakh’s autonomy within Azerbaijan. The full text of the basic principles has still not been publicized by the three mediating powers as well as official Yerevan and Baku. The conflicting parties have for years disagreed on practical modalities of the Karabakh plebiscite. He spelled out his position on the Karabakh issue. According to him, the principles of Madrid have been accepted by the presidents of the Minsk Group co-chairs, which indicates a serious level, which means that the core philosophy and strategy of these principles cannot be changed, namely the Karabakh issue must be solved on the basis of two principles, territorial integrity of Azerbaijan and the self-determination of Karabakh. He thinks these two principles are incompatible, and are a diplomatic trick to enable the presidents of Azerbaijan and Armenia to sell the plan of settlement to their publics. He says a legitimate government can speak with the great powers in another language. We will not sign an agreement which will not be undersigned by Nagorno Karabakh. He thinks that before the agreement will be enforced the status of Lachin corridor must be clarified. And the agreement must specify the date of the referendum and who should vote in the referendum, the questions of the ballot, its legal consequences, and finally who will organize the referendum, otherwise it will be deception. During the next days of the rally the ANC is supposed to visit 5 regions of Armenia and on May 3 they will hold another rally in the Liberty Square.
