KOCHARIAN SAYS MALICE SHOULD NOT BE USED IN POLITICS
ARMENPRESS
Oct 31, 2007
YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, ARMENPRESS: Presidnet Robert Kocharian said today
it was regretful that ex-presidnet Levon Ter-Petrosian is seeking
a political comeback being filled with malice. He said it was that
malice that destroyed his Armenian National Movement (ANM).
Kocharian made his remarks after a journalist asked him to comment
on accusations which the ex-presidnet leveled on the incumbent
administration in a 90-minute speech at the October 26 rally.
Kocharian said the main ‘idea’ in his predecessor’s speech is that
‘everything was good when he ruled Armenia and when he resigned
everything turned bad.’ "I think our people remember well what quality
of life they had during Ter-Petrosian’s years in office and now. At
any rate, there is one and simple option to assess how the presidents
perform after taking up their offices. From this perspective we should
look at what each of them inherited and what each achieved by the
time they resign,’ Kocharian said.
He said this approach is equally applicable to a farmer, a businessman
and the country’s presidnet.
"Levon Ter-Petrosian became presidnet of Armenian in 1990 August,
when it was still part of the Soviet Union and one of the most
industrialized republics and had a developed agriculture. Three-four
years later Armenia transformed into one of the poorest world
nations. Certainly, the disintegration of the former Soviet Union had
resulted in certain losses, but in my assessment they should not have
gone beyond 15-20 percent. These losses should have been recovered
through investments and development projects, which was the case in
the Baltic countries, Belarus, Ukraine, while in Armenia the economy
was destroyed completely in few years.
Today we can say the following-Ter-Petrosian and his allies inherited
a country in a normal state and handed it down to me as a country
with a collapsed economy, rated by international organizations as
one of the world’s poorest nations," Kocharian said.