TER-PETROSIAN WILL RUN FOR PRESIDENT, SAY ALLIES
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Sept 26 2007

Political allies of Levon Ter-Petrosian were confident on Wednesday
that Armenia’s former president will after all decide to participate
in the approaching presidential elections. They also brushed aside
President Robert Kocharian’s warning that Ter-Petrosian should stay
away from politics or face renewed scrutiny of his controversial
track record.

"Levon Ter-Petrosian’s nomination [as a presidential candidate]
is irreversible. That is, it will definitely happen," said Ararat
Zurabian, chairman of the Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh), the
former ruling party of the ex-president is the unofficial top leader.

"As the first president said, he has not yet made a final decision
[to contest the vote,]" Zurabian told reporters. "But I believe things
are moving towards that decision."

In his first public speech in nearly a decade, Ter-Petrosian told
hundreds of supporters that he has still not decided whether to
seek a return to power. Still, his blistering attack on Armenia’s
"corrupt and criminal" leadership prompted suggestions that he is
leaning towards a presidential run.

Aram Sarkisian, whose radical opposition Hanrapetutyun party also
strongly backs Ter-Petrosian, made a similar point in an interview with
RFE/RL. He claimed that Ter-Petrosian, who led Armenia to independence
in 1991, is popular enough to return to power.

"Our contacts with the public show that a huge section of
Armenia’s population thinks that if a prudent, pragmatic person like
Ter-Petrosian … decides to stand, he will win," said Sarkisian. "I
am convinced that the day after the statement by the first president
[on his nomination] scores of people will converge on the Yerevan
square with flags," he added.

Kocharian on Tuesday rejected Ter-Petrosian’s accusations and
warned that his predecessor will become an "ordinary opposition
politician" and risk a barrage of criticism if he chooses to stand
in the presidential ballot. He said Armenians would be "reminded"
of many shortcomings which they still associate with Ter-Petrosian’s
1990-1998 rule.

"All questions will get appropriate answers," commented Zurabian.

"If they thought that their predecessors committed crimes they were
obliged to go to court and hold those people accountable," Sarkisian
said for his part.

Both the HHSh and Hanrapetutyun regard Ter-Petrosian as the only
politician capable of thwarting a planned handover of power from
Kocharian to Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian. They hope that other
major opposition groups will also rally around the ex-president. But so
far only one of them, the People’s Party (HZhK) of Stepan Demirchian,
has been ready to consider doing that.

Demirchian, who was Kocharian’s main challenger in the last
presidential election, denied on Wednesday some Ter-Petrosian
associates’ claims that his endorsement of the ex-president is
a forgone conclusion. "As long as the first president has not
announced his nomination, the HZhK can not decide to support him,"
he told RFE/RL.

Still, Demirchian made it clear that he has a high regard for
Ter-Petrosian while agreeing with much of the criticism of Armenia’s
former leadership. "Let us not forget that the country was at war
then," he said. "There were mistakes, very negative phenomena,
manifestations of irresponsibility and impunity. But those negative
phenomena are now much more deeply rooted in our life."