AZG Armenian Daily #172, 21/09/2007

Local Politics

ARF NOMINATES CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS TO OPEN DISPUTE IN
SOCIETY

Armen Rustamian, member of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(ARF), gave quite a positive evaluation to the possible political
comeback of ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian and his nomination as a
presidential contender. He said this during the press conference at
"Friday" club, adding that his party’s reaction to it would be normal.

Armen Rustamian, a chairman of a parliament committee on foreign
relations and one of two top ARF members (the second is deputy
parliament speaker Vahan Hovhanesian) short-listed by ARF recent
congress as a possible ARF presidential candidate, said
Ter-Petrosian’s re-injection into politics would make political
struggle ideology-based.

Rustamian said he could not predict what policy Ter-Petrosian may
have."It has been a decade since we stopped hearing Ter-Petrosian’s
opinions. I do not know whether they have changed, but I know that
when the ARF was in opposition to his administration, there were two
major ideologies in Armenia’s society, one was the national ideology
(of the ARF) and the other was denying everything that was national,
being actually a cosmopolitan ideology," he said.

Rustamian further said Ter-Petrosian’s potential nomination would
bring about a huge subject for debates which he said may help many
swinging voters to made their final choice before going to the polls
next year.

By Marieta Khachatrian, Translated by K.A