Opposition not waiting for ex-president’s return

Opposition not waiting for ex-president’s return

Yerkir/arm
November 26, 2004

Levon Ter-Petrosian’s interview after 6 years of silence has not
caused sensation with the opposition representatives: National Unity
(NU) and Justice bloc. This became clear during the parliamentary
debriefing the other day.

Secretary of the Justice bloc Victor Dallakian said the ex-president
should be left to decide whether he is going to deal with
politics. And the NU secretary Aleksan Karapetian said that
Ter-Petrosian does not see his return in pol itics even in the depth
of his soul. Karapetian reminded that Ter-Petrosian’s party, Armenian
National Movement (ANM) skipped its chance to stand next tothe
opposition during the last elections. He also made a point that the
current plight of the country is a heritage of Ter-Petrosian.

Leader of the Republican Party of Armenia Galust Sahakian said that
Levon Ter-Petrosian made a wrong start with the interview to the
press. He also readdressed the question of Ter-Petrosian’s possible
return to politics to the very ex-president. He also asserted that the
authorities had not stepped back onthe issue of Karabagh.

ARF faction leader Levon Mkrtchian said that Ter-Petrosian’s returnto
politics is a matter of time. As to the ex-president’s famous article
`War or Peace’ , Mkrtchian said that did not denounce the package
solution, but only said that Armenia does not have an opportunity for
that. `but today we do have that opportunity,’ said Mkrtchian. As to
discussing the Karabagh issue in EC, Mkrtchian expressed doubt that EC
can seriously be involved in the process with its actual voting
mechanism.

Orinats Yerkir Party representative Mher Shahgeldian also spoke about
the importance of package solution to the Karabagh issue.