"OPPOSITION FIGURES WOULD RATHER COMMIT SUICIDE THAN TAKE PART IN ELECTIONS SEPARATELY," MANUK GASPARIAN SAYS

Noyan Tapan
Oct 16, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 16, NOYAN TAPAN. Manuk Gasparian, the Chairman of
the Democratic Way Party, regards the 2008 presidential elections
as an opportunity to get rid of the Karabakh clan. As he mentioned
at the press conference held on October 16, if Prime Minister Serge
Sargsian declares in public that he will struggle against that clan,
the Democratic Way Party will support him in the elections. Manuk
Gasparian stressed at the same time that the Prime Minister is unlikely
to promise such a thing as both him and the President of the Republic
"originate from the very Karabakh clan."

According to Manuk Gasparian, there are already three pre-electoral
poles in the interpolitical field of Armenia: the first has been formed
around Serge Sargsian, the second around Levon Ter-Petrosian, and the
third will be formed around the common opposition candidate. In the
conviction of Manuk Gasparian, the common candidate is a necessary
factor for the success of the Armenian opposition. "The opposition
figures had better commit suicide than take part in the elections
separately," he said. Manuk Gasparian did not say whom he sees in the
role of the common candidate and added that at present the Democratic
Way Party is sewing the "cloak" of the common candidate together
with a number of other parties and that they will find the person the
"cloak" will suit as soon as the latter is ready.