“Azg” comments on implications of Saturday’s surprise meeting between former President Levon Ter-Petrosian and two top leaders of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). “On the one hand, it’s good that they are setting an example of tolerance ahead of the presidential elections … On the other hand, there might also be a hidden phenomenon behind all this,” says the paper. “Actually not one, but two. To use the meeting against a third party, most probably the [governing] HHK, to try to challenge the fact of its leader being the main election favorite. Secondly, the wave of popular criticism prompted by the first president’s September 21 speech can be softened in this way. [The calculation is that] if even Dashnaktsutyun, which had suffered at the hands of the HHSh, accepts [Ter-Petrosian] one can be a bit forgiving towards him.”
According to “Hayots Ashkhar,” the meeting was a shrewd move on the part of Ter-Petrosian. “Thus, Ter-Petrosian hit several targets with one strike,” says the paper. “First of all, he showed that he has urgently decided to nominate his [presidential] candidacy, putting aside his examinations and deliberations, because that is what his political interests require. At the same time he refuted, or at least tried to refute, the opinion of President Robert Kocharian and the vast majority of politicians that by returning to active politics Ter-Petrosian will become an ordinary politician and face all resulting consequences. Admittedly, not every ordinary politician will shake, out of political expediency, the hands of the leaders of a traditional party that had suffered most from the HHSh’s democratic freedoms. Leaders whom he had accused of harboring terrorist structures in and outside the country and, what is more, of provoking the [1915] genocide of the Western Armenians.”
“Notwithstanding everything, this could create the basis for a new political culture whereby at fateful moments political forces opposed to each other may work together to attain some supra-partisan, supra-factional goals,” writes “Haykakan Zhamanak.” “Dashnaktsutyun and Ter-Petrosian have thereby shattered stereotypes harming both of them. Dashnaktsutyun has long been accused of not being an independent political force and simply catering for Robert Kocharian and, from now on, Serzh Sarkisian. With this step, Dashnaktsutyun once again showed that it is an absolutely independent force. As for Levon Ter-Petrosian, it was important for the latter to remind the public that he is known as a broad-minded statesman who finds it important to interact even with political and public forces opposed to him.”
“That this meeting was not to the Kocharian-Sarkisian duo’s liking and they would do everything to avert it is evident,” says “Zhamanak Yerevan.” “Also evident is the fact that such meetings could shatter calculations for years done by the authorities.” The paper adds that by visiting the Dashnaktsutyun headquarters in Yerevan Ter-Petrosian also tried to somehow counter a PR campaign which is certain to be unleashed against him by the authorities.
(Atom Markarian)
According to “Hayots Ashkhar,” the meeting was a shrewd move on the part of Ter-Petrosian. “Thus, Ter-Petrosian hit several targets with one strike,” says the paper. “First of all, he showed that he has urgently decided to nominate his [presidential] candidacy, putting aside his examinations and deliberations, because that is what his political interests require. At the same time he refuted, or at least tried to refute, the opinion of President Robert Kocharian and the vast majority of politicians that by returning to active politics Ter-Petrosian will become an ordinary politician and face all resulting consequences. Admittedly, not every ordinary politician will shake, out of political expediency, the hands of the leaders of a traditional party that had suffered most from the HHSh’s democratic freedoms. Leaders whom he had accused of harboring terrorist structures in and outside the country and, what is more, of provoking the [1915] genocide of the Western Armenians.”
“Notwithstanding everything, this could create the basis for a new political culture whereby at fateful moments political forces opposed to each other may work together to attain some supra-partisan, supra-factional goals,” writes “Haykakan Zhamanak.” “Dashnaktsutyun and Ter-Petrosian have thereby shattered stereotypes harming both of them. Dashnaktsutyun has long been accused of not being an independent political force and simply catering for Robert Kocharian and, from now on, Serzh Sarkisian. With this step, Dashnaktsutyun once again showed that it is an absolutely independent force. As for Levon Ter-Petrosian, it was important for the latter to remind the public that he is known as a broad-minded statesman who finds it important to interact even with political and public forces opposed to him.”
“That this meeting was not to the Kocharian-Sarkisian duo’s liking and they would do everything to avert it is evident,” says “Zhamanak Yerevan.” “Also evident is the fact that such meetings could shatter calculations for years done by the authorities.” The paper adds that by visiting the Dashnaktsutyun headquarters in Yerevan Ter-Petrosian also tried to somehow counter a PR campaign which is certain to be unleashed against him by the authorities.
(Atom Markarian)