Hayots Ashkharh Daily, Armenia
Dec 15 2007
RIVALRY SHIFTS TO THE BLACK-AND-WHITE PLANE
The law doesn’t and can’t deprive the ex-President from the right
of his nomination for presidency, anyhow political scientist Suren
Zolyan believes Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s claim for presidency is beyond
the frameworks of moral standards.
He says: `An atmosphere should have been created in our reality
that would make him be ashamed of being nominated and continue to be
engaged in science as he used to do for 10 years. But there is a
layer of society, which, as Taleyran once said, `remembers nothing
and learns nothing.’ The return of the ex-President to active
politics unfortunately displayed that the moral values have been
devaluated and don’t exist any more. In such circumstances the
ex-President can definitely become a political factor and as we see
some part of the people is ready to follow him.’
Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s reverence for the oligarchs, whom he tries
to represent as victims, is no less unacceptable for our
interlocutor. `It turns out that not the people, whom he is going to
liberate, are the victims, but the `poor oligarchs’ whom the
authorities have deprived of the right to become as rich as they
want.’
As for the interference of the foreign powers in our elections,
taking into account the slogans with which L.T.P. appears, declaring
that Armenia’s future is to rely on Turkey and Azerbaijan, he said: `
it is not excluded, but the interference of the foreign powers is
hardly possibly in this issue.’
Can the alternative `poles’ create climate in the forthcoming
presidential elections or the main rivalry will be between L.T.P and
the pro-governmental candidate, as the activists of Armenian Pan
National movement state.
S. Zolyan believes: ` theoretically the candidates can raffle the
factor of the third power and introduce it as a real alternative,
saying that the present and the former ones have discredited
themselves by abusing one another. They can probably use that chance.
But most probably the variant of the black and white will work.
L. Ter-Petrosyan managed to polarize the atmosphere and shift to
political rivalry to the black-and-white plane – either you are with
me or you are `sold’ and you serve Serge Sargsyan. This deprives the
alternative poles to play an intermediary role and practically two
candidates will remain.’
And the chances of these two candidates according to the political
scientist essentially differ.
S. HARUTYUNYAN