Published on September 03, 2008
EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE IN POLITICS
In the press conference held yesterday, L. Ter-Petrosyan made several interesting statements.
Who will be LTP’s legal successor, i.e. the leader of the “opposition”? Stepan Demirtchyan or David Shahnazaryan? The speaker was very displeased to answer this question. “There is no point in speaking about the names of individuals today. Individuals do not matter to me. It so happened that I am at the head of the movement at present. For me, the important thing is to strengthen the movement and make it a permanent political factor in Armenia. As to the leader, it is always possible to find one. And that leader will be the most deserving person. Make no doubt about it!”
How is the ex-President going to achieve the realization of the principal slogan of the upcoming demonstration, i.e. the resignation of Serge Sargsyan? “I wouldn’t like to make it a simple and primitive matter. What is known as a principal slogan is nothing more than a slogan which implies large-scale work on a horizontal level and in different directions. The essence of our activity consists in strengthening the movement, i.e. bringing the congress into existence, and that will spontaneously lead to a shift of power; that’s true. It will lead to the resignation of Serge Sargsyan.
It’s not that we demanded his resignation, and he resigned. No one ever resigns from his post in that way. Serge Sargsyan should, at some moment, see that he is not accepted by an organized group of society vs. some uncertain mass of people, and that he cannot rule this country any more,” the leader-congressman replied.
To what extent is the leader’s innermost desire realistic? “I strive for that. Whether or not I will manage to do that is known to God only. I am a modest person, and I have never overestimated my potentials. I have only set a task, an objective. If I achieve its realization, that will be good; if not, that will not be the end of the world. There are also some people who think that we will not reach our aim under any circumstances,” the speaker said, returning to the harsh reality.
And, forgetting about the bitter experience of 1996, he became sincerely astonished: can one stick to the throne so persistently? “The so-called power, the practice of sticking to power is characteristic to the criminal authorities only. Authorities which are honest never stick to power.”
The authorities, in his opinion, “are facing a problem in terms of communicating with society and being acceptable to that society” and not him or the “pan-national movement.
To be honest, we are facing a problem too. If the situation has come to dead end, it is true for both parties. 76 of our friends are now in prison, and the international community tolerates that. As to how long they will remain tolerant I don’t know it, but there is not yet anyone standing on their way.”
One of the journalists tried to figure out whether the speaker considered Robert Kocharyan as a potential rival on the way of his further progress. “What if I say I didn’t understand the question? I haven’t been engaged in politics for 10 years. I was engaged in scholarly activity during the past 10 years and wasn’t the rival of anyone in all that period. That’s all.
To be a political rival means to run for election. I don’t know what Robert Kocharyan is doing now. He is not engaged in politics. When he starts his political activity again, and I continue my political activity too, we’ll become rivals. It’s quite possible that we may become allies at some moment. Everything is possible in politics,” Mr. Ter-Petrosyan said, trying to sound sharp-witted.
And in order not to be “misunderstood”, he added, “This was a joke, but such strange things are really possible in politics.” And the evidence is the ex-President’s second advent and the incredibly high result he attained in the elections.
With regard to the rumors on Robert Kocharyan’s return, the ex-President said “I am very sorry, and I don’t want you to think that I avoid giving an answer, but these are gossips. And I am not in the habit of interpreting gossips and making judgments about them. When he returns to politics, we’ll talk about it,” the founding-chairman said, changing the subject of the conversation.
L. P.
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