DASHNAK LEADER SLAMS TER-PETROSIAN SPEECH
By Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 30 2007

A top leader of the governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun) criticized on Tuesday former President Levon
Ter-Petrosian’s latest public speech, saying that it was too radical
and lacked self-criticism.

Hrant Markarian, the de facto head of the nationalist party’s worldwide
governing body, also insisted that Ter-Petrosian stands no chance
of winning next year’s presidential election. He said Armenians are
unhappy with their current and former rulers and only trust third
forces like Dashnaktsutyun.

Dashnaktsutyun has pointedly refused to endorse Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian’s presidential bid and will nominate its own candidate
instead, despite being represented in his coalition cabinet.

"I very much want Levon Ter-Petrosian to stand in the elections,"
Markarian told RFE/RL in an interview. "If the past 17 years have not
been enough to make him a realist, then let him run and find his real
place in this society."

Ter-Petrosian announced his decision to run for president on Friday
in a 90-minute speech at a Yerevan rally attended by more than
20,000 people. He reiterated his harsh criticism of Armenia’s current
leadership, describing it as a "kleptocracy" which is disinterested in
rule of law and controls the most lucrative forms of economic activity.

Markarian stressed that while his party agrees that the Armenian
government’s "policy of economic monopolization has reached its
climax" it believes that the root causes of this and other fundamental
problems facing the country date back to Ter-Petrosian’s 1991-1998
presidency. "That speech could have been somewhat convincing if he
had started it by evaluating his years [in power,]" he said.

Dashnaktsutyun was bitterly opposed to Ter-Petrosian throughout that
period, resenting his liberal economic policies and what it saw as
a soft line on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and relations with Turkey.

Ter-Petrosian controversially banned the party in 1994, accusing it
violating Armenia’s laws and running a secret death squad. The ban
was lifted shortly after his dramatic resignation in 1998.

Dashnaktsutyun has since been among the most loyal allies of his
successor, Robert Kocharian.

Markarian, who was among Dashnaktsutyun leaders jailed by the
Ter-Petrosian administration, claimed that the ex-president suggested
no remedies to right the wrongs mentioned in his speech. "His speech
contained [words like] destroy, break up, eliminate," he said. "But
there was nothing on what to create."

"Only a person detached from reality for ten years could make such
a speech. You can’t change anything in this country by means of
extremism," he added.

The Dashnaktsutyun leader went on to condemn Ter-Petrosian for
effectively implicating Kocharian in the organization of the October
1999 terrorist attack on the Armenian parliament and the resulting
assassination of then Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian and parliamentary
speaker Karen Demirchian.

"October 27 was the tragedy and even the shame of our nation," he
said. "But it must not be a subject of political exploitation. Only
an unsavory person can use October 27 for furthering his career and
winning [political] dividends."

Ter-Petrosian said that the parliament killings enabled Kocharian
to assert his supremacy in the country’s leadership and tighten his
grip on power. He charged that the Armenian president only deepened
lingering suspicions about his involvement in the shock attack by
"scuttling" the search for its possible masterminds.

Markarian argued, however, that the criminal investigation into the
killings was initially led by "members of Vazgen’s team" who never
came up with compelling evidence of Kocharian’s possible involvement.