Lragir, Armenia
Dec 22 2007

THE FIRST STAGE ENDED IN LEVON TER-PETROSYAN’S VICTORY

The first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan running in the
presidential election in 2008 summed up the first stage of the
movement initiated by him in the December 22 congress of forces
supporting him. According to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, it ended in the
defeat of the regime.

According to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, unlike the movement he leads, the
regime is absorbed in intrigues, employing the administrative,
information, financial, criminal, repressive, misinformation and
splintering resource. According to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, all the TV
companies, except for Gala TV and Yerkir Media, are controlled by the
government, praising the government and severely criticizing
Ter-Petrosyan.

Nevertheless, the first president notes that his team managed to
carry out a more successful and effective campaign than the
government campaign, through fliers, his speeches and DVDs with the
footage of his rallies. Besides, Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that the
government views bribe as one of the main resource for the
presidential election in 2008 and is going to spend about half a
million dollars, including from the budgets of the government
agencies and the Central Bank.

As to the achievements of his movement, Levon Ter-Petrosyan
underlines the unification of forces which support him, and if he is
not the common candidate of the opposition, at least he is an
opposite pole to the government, which will struggle against the
government for the presidential election. Levon Ter-Petrosyan says
even the western experts already point out that the main struggle
will be between Levon Ter-Petrosyan and Serge Sargsyan.

The People’s Part of Armenia, the Republic Party and the All-Armenian
Movement comprise the core of the forces which support him. Among his
supporters Levon Ter-Petrosyan enumerates the Social Democratic
Henchak Party of Armenia, the Union of Democratic Forces, the Marxist
Party, the Conservative Party, the Heritage Party, the Freedom Party,
the Democratic Fatherland Party, the Liberal Progressive Party, and
several other parties and dozens of NGOs, stating that the purpose of
this group is to overcome the bandit yoke and establish
constitutional order. Besides, Levon Ter-Petrosyan said thousands of
veterans of the Karabakh war and dozens of branches of the Yerkrapah
Union of Volunteers support his movement.

Levon Ter-Petrosyan considers the next achievement of the first stage
of his movement the three rallies with 60 thousand people in the
first, 80 thousand in the second and 90 thousand people in the third,
although the government reported less participation. The other
important achievement is the overcoming of the information blockade
thanks to which, according to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, about 500 thousand
people learn about his ideas and programs. The other success,
according to the first president, was exposing the bandit system,
because people who were dissatisfied with illegality in all the
spheres could nor realize the reasons, and Ter-Petrosyan’s movement
presented in detail the cause of emergence and survival of this
system. Summing up, Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated that he considers that
the first stage ended in his victory.

Afterwards the first president announced what he plans to do,, noting
that perhaps some details should have been silenced tactically,
however, he remains loyal to his transparent style of work. Hence,
according to Levon Ter-Petrosyan, the goal of the next stage is to
set up election headquarters, noting that he has the absolute right
to appoint the head of the headquarters. However, he does not rule
out discussion on candidates. The next is the political board of the
headquarters, which will be a consulting body and will include the
leaders or the representatives of all the political forces which
support him. The head of the headquarters will hold the meetings of
the board. The next is the executive body of the headquarters, which
will deal with regional organizations, proxies, observers, and
citizens. Levon Ter-Petrosyan says all these activities are for this
year.

The first president said the headquarters will organize their
movement better, and controversies which have occurred so far due to
its absence will be eliminated after the headquarters is established.
As to his participation in the campaign, Ter-Petrosyan says he plans
at least one rally in each community of Yerevan and all the regions
of Armenia, and will conclude the campaign with two rallies at the
Square of Freedom in Yerevan. If necessity arises, they will hold
more rallies. The first president is going to visit as many villages
and meet with as many citizens as possible. If we defeated Gorbachov,
we can prevent this regime from winning, Levon Ter-Petrosyan says,
noting that struggle against a government repressing its citizens and
shortening their rights turns into a nation liberation struggle.