"PRIME MINISTER SHOULD BE SKILLFUL MANAGER"

A1+
04 April, 2008

Today the "Hayeli" Club hosted Republican Armen Ashotian who dwelt
on Armenia’s latest events. "The recent events are characteristic of
transitional countries," Armen Ashotian said. In the main, he divided
the history of the newly independent state into three phases. In
1988-1998 Armenia entered an "embryonic" sage. In 1998-2008 the
country began maturing and finally after 2008 it became conscious.

Today Ashotian spoke of Armenia’s next prime minister as well.

"I want to focus on his qualities. A prime minister should represent
a political team, but he mustn’t be a "politicized" figure. He should
be a skillful manager," Ashotian said with regard to Armenia’s next
prime minister without giving any names.

"Do you mean Hovik Abrahamian?" a journalist interrupted him.

"Where did you know?" Ashotian asked in his turn.

"As you didn’t say anything about his/her intellect," she said.

"A prime minister should necessarily have a high level of intellect,"
Ashotian said.

Today Ashotian drew parallels between Kosovo and the Nagorno-Karabakh
Republic. "Since the proclamation of Kosovo’s independence, Armenia and
NKR have failed to derive highest dividends from the Kosovo precedent
as our attention is focused in another direction."

The events of March 1 undoubtedly affected Armenia’s rating on
an international level. I am speaking of outer forces. The rallies
pursued one objective – to weaken the country from inside and to make
it vulnerable for outside forces," Ashotian said.

"It is necessary to uproot the social basis of Levon Ter-Petrossian’s
electorate, change their moods, for the statements of Ter-Petrossian
and people around him not to shape a public opinion. It is necessary
to understand why those 350 thousand people have passed to that camp,
and to find a policy solution to their problems. In this format Levon
Ter-Petrossian will not be needed," said the Republican.

Today while replying journalists’ questions, Ashotian blamed the
latest events exceptionally on the opposition. "You see, one cannot
speak to or negotiate with a wall. If you speak and the other keeps
silent, if you try your best to foster a dialogue but get no response,
your attempts turn into a monologue."

Reminder: Levon Ter-Petrossian welcomed the initiatives and
propositions of the European Union and the Ago group and expressed
readiness to negotiate over the propositions.