TER-PETROSIAN REACHES OUT TO ‘ENSLAVED’ OLIGARCHS
By Emil Danielyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Dec 10 2007

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian appealed to Armenia’s leading
businessmen to defy the government and back his presidential bid as
he again rallied thousands of opposition supporters in Yerevan at
the weekend.

In another wide-ranging speech, Ter-Petrosian also sought to reach
out to other, much bigger segments of the population, condemning
government plans to raise taxes levied from small business and
describing Armenian farmers as the country’s "unacknowledged" heroes.

He also angrily hit back at continuing government claims that he
"wrecked" the Armenian economy while in office.

Ter-Petrosian spent a considerable part of the 90-minute speech
providing, in a characteristic academic manner, a detailed description
of the politico-economic system of the medieval Mongol Empire which he
said bears a striking resemblance to that of modern-day Armenia. He
claimed that even the wealthiest Armenians are essentially at the
mercy of President Robert Kocharian and Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian,
comparing the two men to Mongol khans who wielded unlimited power over
their subjects. Mentioning Armenia’s leading government-connected
"oligarchs" by name, he described them as "slaves" and said they
will run the constant risk of losing their assets as long as
Kocharian-Sarkisian duo remains in power.

"Until when will you put up with that humiliation?" Ter-Petrosian
asked, addressing about 20,000 people who gathered in the city’s
Liberty Square. "Until when will you put up with your slave-like
status? Don’t you understand that with your servility you prop up the
foundations of the khanate and condemn our entire nation, including
your own children, to slavery?

"What keeps you from closing ranks and toppling the khan yoke loathed
by everyone, including yourself? … How do you sleep at night? Can
you look your wives and children in the eyes?"

"If you continue to dishonorably serve the current authorities, they
will be able to destroy you one by one at any moment," he continued.

"But if you jointly oppose them, they won’t last even for one day."

So far only one of the "oligarchs," who made their fortunes thanks to
their government connections, has lent support to Ter-Petrosian’s bid
to return to power. Khachatur Sukiasian, a parliament deputy and the
main owner of SIL Group, pledged last week to stand by the ex-president
"until our victory" despite an ongoing government crackdown on his
businesses.

Virtually all other tycoons remain loyal to Armenia’s top leaders.

They have financed Kocharian’s and his allies’ election campaigns
and are expected to render similar assistance to Sarkisian in the
upcoming presidential election. Sukiasian has claimed that many them
privately sympathize with Ter-Petrosian but are too scared to revolt
against the authorities.

But one tycoon, who is believed to be close to Sarkisian, insisted
on Monday he did not and will not get involved in politics. "I did
very well even in 1996-1997, when Levon Ter-Petrosian was in power,"
said Mikhail Baghdasarian, whose business interests range from fuel
imports to civil aviation. "Incidentally, I came here [from Russia]
at his initiative."

"I do business not for Levon Ter-Petrosian or Robert Kocharian but
for Armenia, for those people who work for me," said the Russian
citizen of Armenian descent.

In his speech, Ter-Petrosian disputed the widely held belief that the
"oligarchs" are allowed to grossly evade taxes in return for their
political and economic support for the ruling regime. He alleged that
most of the taxes paid by them end up in the pockets of "jackals"
running the country — his most bitter personal attack on Sarkisian
and Kocharian yet. "In fact, you have fulfilled your tax obligations
but your payments have gone not to the state budget but to a totally
different place," he said.

Ter-Petrosian also sought to win over tens of thousands of Armenians
owning small businesses. Many of them have until now paid only a
so-called "simplified tax" and have been exempted from other, heftier
duties. Citing the need to combat tax evasion, the Armenian government
pushed through parliament earlier this year a legal amendment that
will make it much harder for small firms to qualify for simplified tax.

Ter-Petrosian condemned the measure, which will take effect on
January 1, and reiterated his claims that the Armenian economy is
being increasingly monopolized by the government-linked super rich.

"The majority of entrepreneurs representing the middle class, having
long lost their independence, are trapped in the net of monopolist
companies involved in wholesale trade," he said.

Responding to such allegations, Kocharian has said that Ter-Petrosian
has no moral right to speak about economics because he "wrecked"
Armenia’s Soviet-era industry and made the nation one of the poorest
in the world during the turbulent first years of its independence.

Armenia’s GDP shrunk by more than half amid a sever energy crisis
in 1992-1993. Kocharian has downplayed the impact of the war in
Nagorno-Karabakh and the Azerbaijani and Turkish economic blockades
on the economic collapse.

Ter-Petrosian insisted that Soviet-era manufacturing industries were
too backward to adapt to the free market and went into decline in
all former Communist states. He said the decline was much steeper in
Armenia because of the Karabakh war, the economic blockades, turmoil in
neighboring Georgia, the presence of hundreds of thousands of Armenian
refugees from Azerbaijan as well as devastating consequences of the
1988 earthquake. "If you put any other state in those conditions,
you would see the same results," he said.

Ter-Petrosian further declared that the fact that Armenia managed to
defeat Azerbaijan against the odds while registering modest economic
growth in 1994 makes his time in office one of the most glorious
periods in Armenian history. "It is hard not to agree that it was
a feat that has no precedent in the modern history of the Armenian
people," he said.