Commenting on Levon Ter-Petrosian’s latest speech in an interview with “Kapital,” film director Tigran Xmalian says he now regrets supporting the former president in the 2008 presidential election. “I made a mistake,” he says. “I made a mistake just like thousands of people who believed him did. … I think that what he considers realism is just ordinary philistinism, political philistinism.”
“Hayots Ashkhar” scoffs at Ter-Petrosian’s claims that the Armenian authorities sought to sow discord within the former ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement (HHSh) party. The pro-government paper sees a deepening climate of suspicion in Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK), with which the HHSh is affiliated.
“At first glance, Levon Ter-Petrosian’s statement contradicts the official policy of the Congress,” writes “Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun.” “On the one hand, the Congress is demanding pre-term presidential and parliamentary elections. On the other hand, Ter-Petrosian is saying that regime change will have no results as long as the Karabakh issue and Turkish-Armenian relations are not settled. That means the HAK is trying to come to power in order to solve those problems as soon as possible. And such a conclusion will hardly increase the number of Congress supporters.” What Ter-Petrosian meant to say, explains the pro-HAK daily, is that Armenia can make peace with Turkey and Azerbaijan on favorable terms only if it has a “normal” leadership.
“Aravot” believes that Ter-Petrosian failed to set the record straight on Karabakh. In an editorial, the paper says that he was right to point out that the international community can not stop Azerbaijan from restarting the war but disputes his implicit claim that Baku will not be held back by the Armenian military might. “It is true that [Ilham] Aliyev could be imprudent enough to attack Karabakh, but there is no way the Azerbaijani army could bring us to our knees,” it says. “Realization of this fact is probably one of the reasons for not starting war.”
“Aravot” also faults Ter-Petrosian for not clearly stating whether he thinks the HHSh’s former chairman, Ararat Zurabian, and his deputy Khachatur Kokobelian secretly collaborated with the government. “Thus, they were neither cleared, nor condemned,” it says. “This uncertainty will hardly contribute to the effectiveness of this party’s activities.”
“Hraparak” reports that Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Zhukov left Armenian government circles “extremely worried” on Monday when he unexpectedly met opposition leader Stepan Demirchian during a visit to Yerevan. Demirchian is quoted as saying that he and Zhukov met and talked in his Yerevan apartment “in an extremely warm atmosphere.” He insists that their conversation did not have any political implications.
(Aghasi Yenokian)