Opposition politician predicts impending change of power in Armenia

Arminfo
13 Aug 05

Yerevan, 13 August: “A change of power in Armenia is approaching and
it will be unexpected for many, but not for our party,” the deputy
chairman of the opposition National Unity Party [NUP], Aleksan
Karapetyan, said at a press conference today.

He promised the participants in the meeting that the budget will
quickly grow after his party comes to power, pointing to Georgia’s
example. Asked by our Arminfo correspondent whether his party expects
considerable support from Western organizations, which the Georgian
opposition received, Karapetyan stressed that party chairman Artashes
Gegamyan’s sharp criticism of “foreign moral teachers” concerned
exclusively the head of the OSCE mission in Armenia, Vladimir
Pryakhin. The NUP is in favour of relations with international
organizations.

Moreover, he expressed his confidence that it is impossible
to change the political environment in Armenia without Western
support. Karapetyan said that the West’s “soft” criticism of the
2003 presidential election in Armenia is a result of the Armenian
authorities’ pledge to make considerable concessions on the Karabakh
issue. Nevertheless, Karapetyan is sure that the current authorities
will not make any serious concessions and the West, in turn, will
bring the Armenian opposition to power.

[Passage omitted: minor details]