ROBERT KOCHARIAN: IT IS A PITY THAT LEVON TER-PETROSIAN TRIES TO RETURN TO POLITICS, FILLED WITH MALICE

Noyan Tapan
Oct 31, 2007

YEREVAN, OCTOBER 31, NOYAN TAPAN. The Armenian National Movement,
coming to power, received in essence a normal situation, and in 1998 it
handed over to the current President’s administration a state having a
collapsed economy, numbered among the poorest countries of the world
by international institutions. RA President Robert Kocharian, during
the October 31 interview to journalists, gave such an evaluation to
the situation in Armenia under Levon Ter-Petrosian. "It is a pity that
Levon Ter-Petrosian tries to return to politics, filled with malice,
the very malice destroyed ANM in its time," he said.

Touching upon the general thought expressed by the first President
at the October 26 rally, which, in Robert Kocharian’s opinion,
is formulated "it was good in our time and it is bad now," the RA
President mentioned that ANM came to power in August 1990, when
Armenia was one of the USSR republics having the most developed
industry and rather developed agriculture, Armenia became one of the
poorest countries in the world within 3-4 years. At the same time,
the President said that Armenia was to incur some losses after the
collapse of the USSR, as he evaluated, they did not exceed 15-20
percents during the first two years. According to R. Kocharian, in the
future the losses were to have been compensated with new programs,
use of new approaches in the issue of investments, as it was in the
Baltic countries, in Belarus, partly, in the Ukraine. "Industry was
just destroyed in several years in Armenia," he said.

Comparing the indices of 1997 and today’s indices, the RA President
noted: "Today’s budget is the same, a little bigger than the GDP of
that time. I think it is people, who understand the subject even if
a little, should speak about economy," he said.