Armenian newspaper 168 Zham, Yerevan, in Armenian
16 Sep 06 p 2

ARMENIAN NATIONALIST PARTY MAY BACK FOREIGN MINISTER’S PRESIDENTIAL
AMBITIONS

Text of Arman Galoyan’s report by Armenian newspaper 168 Zham on 16
September headlined "Oskanyan has started his election campaign"

There are rumours about Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan possibly
running for the presidency. The speech made by Oskanyan at the
meeting of the supreme council of the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation – Dashnaktsutyun [ARFD] surprised everybody by its Dashnak
contents. Overall, the foreign minister is currently dealing mainly
with his election campaign rather than Armenia’s foreign policy
problems.

After the meeting of the ARFD supreme council, a representative of
the party, Armen Rustamyan, said that the ARFD will take part in the
forthcoming presidential election with its own candidate, which has
not been decided yet. Rustamyan said that everything will be decided
at the next meeting of the party’s supreme council after the
parliamentary election. That’s to say it cannot be ruled out that if
the ARFD does not gain the expected number of votes, it will sharply
change its position. But Rustamyan said that they are not going to
support Vardan Oskanyan, [Defence Minister] Serzh Sarkisyan or
somebody else. The Dashnaks rule out support for Oskanyan because he
is not a member of the party. But this does not mean that Oskanyan
will always remain non-partisan. Moreover, judging from Oskanyan’s
speech at the meeting of the ARFD supreme council and his attitude
towards the party, it is quite possible that he may join the ARFD
rather than the Prosperous Armenia Party. Asked about possible
support for Oskanyan in the presidential election if he joins the
ARFD, Rustamyan replied that the party’s supreme council will solve
this issue and that Oskanyan has not applied for membership yet. He
added that nothing can be ruled out in politics.

Vardan Oskanyan said that he is not going to join any party and does
not want to comment on his possible presidential ambitions.

In any case, the minister and the representative of the ARFD denied
the rumours about Oskanyan possibly running in the presidential
election. But at the same time, they said that nothing can be ruled
out in politics and everything will be clear after the parliamentary
election in 2007.