MORE OPPOSITION TALKS ON PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE
By Astghik Bedevian
Radio Libery, Czech Rep.
Aug 28 2007
Leading Armenian opposition parties held on Tuesday a second round
of negotiations on the possibility of fielding a single candidate in
next year’s presidential election.
Their leaders were tight-lipped about details of the talks. Some of
them said only that they again did not discuss names of concrete
individuals who could successfully challenge Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian during the vote.
"One of the participants said that everyone is ready to put aside
their ambitions for the sake of national welfare," said Paruyr
Hayrikian, a prominent Soviet-era dissident and the main initiator
of the talks. "Nobody objected to that."
"Right now we need to ascertain the team that would enter the fray with
a different value system," Hayrikian told RFE/RL. "It is not important
who will lead the team. The best player should not necessarily be
the team captain."
"We are not discussing concrete candidacies yet," said another
participant, Manuk Gasparian.
Participants again included opposition heavyweights like Stepan
Demirchian, Artashes Geghamian and Artur Baghdasarian. All three men
are believed to continue to harbor presidential ambitions despite
their parties’ poor showing in last May’s parliamentary elections. It
remains to be seen whether any of them is ready to withdraw from the
presidential race in favor of another presidential contender.
Baghdasarian described Tuesday’s consultations as "very useful"
but refused to go into details. Demirchian and Geghamian could not
be reached for comment.
Another top opposition leader, Raffi Hovannisian, failed to
send representatives to the latest talks. They were again openly
boycotted by two other prominent oppositionists, Vazgen Manukian
of the National Democratic Union and Aram Sarkisian of the radical
Hanrapetutyun party. Manukian has already made it clear that he will
run for president in any case, while Sarkisian and his allies make
no secret of their support for former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.
All of the participants interviewed by RFE/RL insisted that
Ter-Petrosian’s possible participation in the 2008 election was not
on the agenda of their meeting.