ARMENIAN MINISTER ONLY PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE FOR 2008 POLLS, POLITICIAN SAYS
Arminfo
17 Apr 06
Yerevan, 17 April: The majority of political parties are pro-Western
in Armenia today, but the West has not its candidate to run for the
forthcoming Armenian presidential election, the leader of the New
Times Party, Aram Karapetyan, has told an Arminfo correspondent.
“Armenian parliament speaker Artur Bagdasaryan is supported by the
West. Look what happened to him. The people who told me in 2005 that
serious cataclysms are expected in the Orinats Yerkir [Law-Governed
Country] Party in 2006, they predict today that only six MPs (less than
one third) will remain in the Orinats Yerkir faction, Karapetyan said.
The voting in the National Assembly on the state property privatization
programme confirm the validity of similar predictions, the leader
of the New Times Party said. He added that Armenian Defence Minister
Serzh Sarkisyan was the only presidential candidate from the Armenian
ruling circles as of today.
Unlike his opponents, Karapetyan denies categorically that the funds
received from the sale of the fifth unit of the Razdan thermal power
plant to the Russian Gazprom were transferred to the Defence Ministry
account and that this meant Russia’s support for Serzh Sarkisyan in
the forthcoming election. “When super powers support their candidates,
they do this unnoticed,” the opposition party leader said.
Aram Karapetyan said that the prevailing pro-Western mood in the
Armenian opposition is linked to the West’s “miraculous” ability to
carry out orange revolutions. “They want to believe in the West’s
active support in the future and meanwhile not to reject its financial
support,” he said.
Russia conducts a pro-Armenian policy today and support for the
Nagornyy Karabakh republic is part of this policy, the leader of the
New Times Party said. He considered the sale of the fifth unit of
the Razdan thermal power plant as the failure of the US Millennium
Challenge Corporation programme in Armenia.
“A total of 235m dollars were intended for the return of seven
districts in a security zone around Nagornyy Karabakh,” Karapetyan
said. He added that the USA would strengthen its pressure on
Armenia and Azerbaijan in the coming months, as a result of which
the geopolitical forces can change their positions in the region,
especially in Armenia.