"IF I WERE COUNTRY’S FACTUAL HEAD, LEVON TER-PETROSIAN WOULD BE ALREADY
IMPRISONED FOR HIS CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AND TURKISH PRESIDENT WOULD NOT BE
INVITED TO YEREVAN TO WATCH FOOTBALL," ROBERT KOCHARIAN SAYS
Y EREVAN, JULY 10, NOYAN TAPAN. "The complex of a defeated person speaks
in him. As he has been defeated twice and has never had dignity to be
defeated manfully. Besides, it is always convenient to make a resigned
President a target for extremism. I did not acted this way in 1998
considering such a conduct inappropriate. It is a conduct of a small
person, who has become wicked. Sometimes I feel pity for him." Previous
RA President Robert Kocharian gave such a commentary to the accusations
addressed to him by first RA President Levon Ter-Petrosian during the
People’s Movement rallies.
Speaking about the presidential elections held in February, R.
Kocharian said in his interview to Mediamax: "He thinks he was defeated
by me, though it is not so. Being a President at that time, I only
carried out my duty by protecting the Constitution and restoring law
and order in the country. L. Ter-Petrosian just fails to come out of
the extreme opposition field. His masters and those paying money to him
will not permit him to do that… Maybe he also thinks that these
actions can please the authorities and on his way he will gain pardon
for the crime committed on March 1 at the same time also receiving a
possibility to mount the high horse during the rallies without
obstacles. It is a possible tactical calculation. In the strategic
respect I do not exclude that in the person of me he continues seeing
his main political rival in the future political fights. I think he
will be once more mistaken both in tactics and in strategy."
R. Kocharian said that a book on the years of his tenure will be
published soon, where there are answers to all questions regarding
efficiency of his work. "Any country and any President can be proud of
such development rates. It would be amusing to publish a similar book
based on the factual material of L. Ter-Petrosian’s tenure years. Let
people compare them. As he and ANM have left nothing light in people’s
memory, have built nothing to show. They are numbered among the types
who remain in history as efficient destroyers. Sometimes L.
Ter-Petrosian loses sense of measure so much that I start doubting his
complicity. It is possible that he mentally just does not stand
tension."
Touching upon the version in press that he is still the factual head of
the country, R. Kocharian said: "It is an absolute absurd. If it were
so, L. Ter-Petrosian would be already imprisoned for his criminal
activity. By the way, by doing so I would have corrected my mistake of
1998. And certainly, the President of Turkey would not be invited to
Yerevan to watch football. The goal of such publications is to cause
additional problems in Armenia. Persons authorized by the Constitution
should rule the country and bear responsibility. Power and
responsibility are inseparable and cannot be shady," the former
President said.