TER-PETROSIAN COALITION OFFER HAS ULTERIOR MOTIVES, SAYS HOVANNESIAN

-petrosian-coalition-offer-has-ulterior-motives-sa ys-hovannesian/
Sep 22, 2009

YEREVAN (RFE/RL)-A leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation on
Tuesday rejected fresh calls from former President Levon Ter-Petrosian
to form an opposition coalition behind his Armenian National Congress,
pointing to ulterior motives behind the opposition leader’s proposal.

Addressing thousands of supporters in Yerevan on Friday, Ter-Petrosian
said that his Armenian National Congress cannot topple President Serzh
Sarkisian without the support of other major political groups. In
a bid to win them over, he said he is ready not to contest a fresh
presidential election that would be called in the event of Sarkisian’s
resignation.

Vahan Hovannesian, the leader of ARF’s faction in parliament, shrugged
off the offer as a political move with ulterior motives. "It’s very
nice to say something which you know won’t happen," he said. "After
saying that you look noble."

Hovannesian brushed aside Ter-Petrosian’s criticism of Sarkisian and
his overtures to Ankara, saying that in reality the opposition leader
has very similar views on Turkish-Armenian relations.

"People [in power] are doing something which he wouldn’t mind doing,
and they will fail in that endeavor," the ARF leader told a news
conference. "He probably thinks that [in that case] he will take over
power and say, ‘Well, guys, they’ve already messed up everything and
there is nothing I can do, so let’s move on.’ But I think that’s also
a wrong calculation."

The ARF already rejected cooperation offers made by Ter-Petrosian
following the Congress’s worse-than-expected showing in the May 31
municipal elections in Yerevan.

The ARF opposed Ter-Petrosian in the early 1990s, when his
administration sought to enact conciliatory policies on Turkey
and Karabakh similar to those being pursued by the Sarkisian
administration. The party was controversially banned during
Ter-Petrosian’s 1991-1998 presidency.

The ARF is currently not seeking Sarkisian’s resignation but has
condemned his failing policy on Turkey.

Hovannesian did not exclude that the party, which quit Sarkisian’s
governing coalition in April, will campaign for regime change
if Armenia’s ongoing rapprochement with Turkey continues "in an
irreversible way."