WHY IS TER-PETROSYAN RETURNING?
Armen Tsatouryan

Hayots Ashkharh Daily
Oct 30 2007
Armenia

When his nonsensical ideas have not come true

As we are aware, L. Ter-Petrrosyan’s well-known press conference held
on September 26, 1997 and the subsequent article entitled as "War or
Peace?" marked the beginning of a political debate which eventually
resulted in his resignation and the 10-years’ silence that followed.

However, making a speech on the Theatrical Square on October 26,
Ter-Petrosyan again made a claim for returning to power. The following
question comes up: whether Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s nonsensical ideas
have come true or just he was on edge and hurried to return to the
political arena, thus, actually, discharging his last bullet in vain.

In order to give an answer to this question, let’s try to remember
the political platform with regard to the Karabakh issue that made
the ex-President quit the political arena. And now he is trying to
return in order to carry out this project.

Let’s recall the paragraphs contained in "War or Peace?", the article
written by Mr. Ter-Petrosyan in 1997, and compare them with the part
of his 2007 speech regarding the Karabakh issue.

And thus, L. Ter-Petrosyan insisted on the following in 1997: First:
it is impossible to maintain the Nagorno Karabakh status quo, as
this will be disallowed by the international community and besides,
it will be impossible, considering Armenia’s economic potentials.

Second: the only option for mutual concessions is the realization
of the phase variant which implied conceding 5 liberated territories
in return for deploying the international peacekeeping forces along
the NKR-Azerbaijan border and proceeding with the talks over the
undetermined status of Nagorno Karabakh.

Third: As far back as 10 years ago, i.e. in 1997-1998, L. Ter-Petrosyan
considered that in case of refusing to apply this variant, the
international community’s coercion or the outbreak of a destructive
war would be inevitable.

Fourth: Handing in a resignation on February 3, 1998, Mr. Ter-Petrosyan
"prompted" the international community and Azerbaijan that the
"party of war" was coming to power in Armenia in order to speed up
the realization of his nonsensical ideas.

Can anyone, including the ex-President, deny that these were the main
arguments accounting for Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s debate on the Karabakh
issue and his subsequent resignation?

So, what about Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s genius predictions and
proposals? What happened to them in the course of the subsequent
10 years?

First: his thesis on the impossibility of maintaining the Krabakh
status quo for a long time burst like a soap-bubble; a fact that Levon
Ter-Petrosyan himself confessed in his speech on October 26, 2007,
by stating that the Karabakh issue is of a trivial importance in the
list of the "superpowers’ priotities". What about the international
community and the imminent war which caused him to suffer a feeling of
horror in 1997-1998. It isn’t as if during the subsequent 10 years our
country were supposed to be totally torn apart by the international
community and especially Azerbaijan.

Second: In case the phase variant, i.e. the return of the 5 liberated
territories and the deployment of the international peacekeeping
forces became a reality in 1997-1998, we would currently be negotiating
over the NKR model as an autonomous vs. a unitary state and not over
the country’s international status. Moreover, the displacement of
Armenians from Nagorno Karabakh would be inevitable in such conditions,
because the achievements gained through the war would have actually
been leveled to the ground.

Third: Azerbaijan did not actually make any serious attempt to
resume the war during the past 10 years, and it will not do so in
the near future either. What’s more, if we had ceded the 5 liberated
territories, the only security guarantee we’d be having now would be
the existence of the international peacekeeping forces which, as we
know, have not done anything so far to prevent the great number of
the ethnic cleansings that took place in the Balkans.

Fourth: If the international community had believed Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s
statements concerning the advent of the "party of war", it would
have ceased providing economic assistance and support to Armenia;
something that didn’t happen during the past 10 years.

The only motive leading to the reasonable perception of his 10 year-old
silence would be a situation in which his viewpoints and nonsensical
ideas might come true; thereafter, he would really have the moral
right to return to the political arena and pretend to political power,
reminding about the above-mentioned.

Since Mr. Ter-Petrosyan’s nonsensical ideas and calculations did not,
fortunately, come true in the course of the past 10 years, it is
obvious that his current political claim loses its justification,
turning into a biased primitive desire for returning to power.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress