Armenian National Congress leader Levon Ter-Petrosian, in a speech to his supporters on Wednesday, said his party was ready—in principle—to recognize Serzh Sarkisian’s legitimacy if the president agreed to cooperate with his group on challenges facing Armenia. In his remarks, Ter-Petrosian also defended some aspects of Sarkisian’s policy on Armenia-Turkey relations and attacked the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and other “extreme nationalists” for their opposition to the protocols process.
Ter-Petrosian criticized the ARF for asserting that by signing the protocols the Sarkisian administration has relinquished its right to demand reparations and territorial claims resulting from the Genocide. Ter-Petrosian claimed that such a posturing has allowed Sarkisian to “present himself to the world as a realistic and resolute statesman worthy of the 21st century.”
The former president said that the principle of “historical rights” was unacceptable within the context of international relations and norms, adding that ARF’s positions, which he characterized as calling for “Turkey’s unconditional capitulation” are aimed at aborting the normalization process, which he said was extremely critical for Armenia.
Ter-Petrosian said he prefers the normalization to take place on the basis of mutual concessions and a display of good will, stressing that for his Armenian National Congress the only unacceptable provision of the protocols was the creation of a historical commission, which he said, will cast doubt on the veracity of the Genocide. He also explained that the commission would alienate the Diaspora, whose existence depends on the Genocide recognition issue. He added that it was “unfortunate” that the Diaspora was so focused on the Genocide issue, since he would prefer for the Diaspora to exert its energy on strengthening Armenia’s statehood.
Ter-Petrosian downplayed Sarkisian’s role in some of what the ARF and others have been criticizing him for and instead shifted the blame to Robert Kocharian, Vartan Oskanian and through his own distorted view of history he accused the ARF of relinquishing territorial claims by adhering to the Kars Treaty. Ter-Petrosian said that Sarkisian inherited the territorial issues, as well as the so-called “Madrid Principles,” on which the Karabakh peace process is based from his predecessors.
The former president reiterated his firm assertions that Sarkisian has made “unforgivable” concessions in order to gain support from the West, at a time when he lacked domestic legitimacy. While repeating his call for Sarkisian’s resignation, Ter-Petrosian signaled that it was not too late for Sarkisian to seek legitimacy by agreeing to cooperate with his forces.
Two top Armenian National Congress officials confirmed that Ter-Petrosian’s speech was, in fact, a call for cooperation.
The ARF’s political director Giro Manoyan on Thursday hit back at Ter-Petrosian saying his overtures to Sarkisian have displaced him as a top opposition leader.
Manoyan also said that Ter-Petrosian was willing to make a deal with his long-time adversary because he supports the defeatist protocols and sees no role for himself as an opposition force and is eager to ensure his survival in the political arena.
Perhaps his own accusation that Sarkisian’s concessions were made to secure legitimacy from the West is propelling his current stance, which he emphasized was the only genuine political assessment of the current situation in Armenia.
For a historian, Ter-Petrosian demonstrated quite a skewed grasp on historical facts beginning with his accusation that the ARF signed the Kars Treaty and concluding with his now militant opposition to the historical commission.
He seems to have forgotten that what led to his resignation was his willingness and readiness to relinquish land for a Western-backed peace deal for Karabakh. Who can forget his ill-conceived Meghri-Lachin land swap deal?
It’s glaringly evident that the person seeking legitimacy is Ter-Petrosian himself. His polarizing rhetoric, which contradicted his own presidential policies, has reached a dead end and he must now sit down with his former defense and interior minister Serzh Sarkisian to discuss what else but the Turkish-Armenia rapprochement, which was a focal point of his own failed policies, of course with the requisite vitriol directed at the ARF.
The fact that Ter-Petrostayn would eventually support Sargsyan comes as no surprise to me. From the onset, Ter-Petrosyan’s reemergence in the political field and his candidacy for the presidency of Armenia only stood to benefit the cleptocracy of Armenia, of which Ter-Petrosyan was the founder. If Ter-Petrosyan had not become a candidate for president and artificially polarized the situation in Armenia, we might well have had a REAL oppositionist movement in Armenia and a real democratically elected AND pro-Armenian government.
The fact that Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s candidacy was an attempt by exterior forces to polarize the situation in Armenia and force Armenia into eventual capitulations is gradually being exposed. The powers that propped up Ter-Petrosyan knew full well that Sargsyan would have to exploit all of the political levers at his disposal to remain in power, in the process delegitimizing his own government. They also knew that an illegitimate Sargsyan would need to eventually bow down to the same powers that were behind Ter-Petrosyan’s reemergence in order to stay in power. Thus, what we are seeing is Sargsyan pursuing all of the same policies that Ter-Petrosyan’s foreign masters wanted to accomplish via Ter-Petrosyan. That’s why Ter-Petrosyan’s role has become neutralized.
Now, Ter-Petrostayn’s foreign masters can and will focus their full energy on the only truly pro-Armenian power left in Armenia, the Dashnaktsutyun. It’s high time the ARF, the Heritage Party, and all other pro-Armenian powers not vested in Armenia’s cleptocratic clans unite and rid the country of cleptocratic servants of foreign powers.
Sargsyan and Ter-Petrosyan have now shown who they really are: two heads of the same beast.
as harsh as it may sound, the dude’s got a point
Many Armenians understood ter-petrosyan’s rallies since their inception 19 months ago, were an attempt to gain some form of legitimacy in order to share power with serzh. He himself knew that this was a futile endeavor, however, one positive and, unexpected development was the resurgence of the ARF as a legitimate political muscle within Armenia. The fact that ter-petrosyan has aligned himself with serzhik, only proves that the ARF is gaining new grounds in Armenia, and ter-petrosyan and the present authorities are worried that the ARF might be able to legally elect a legitimate government led by the ARF.
I believe that for this moment of crossing river of history Armenian nation needs a TRIUMVIRATE.
I wanted somebody to come out with this Proposal. I feel like we see the beginning! Please try to stay productive and work for the nation.
I hope we can send a message to Ter-Petrosian: ” When calling one party to approach and find common ground, do not widen separation with other party. Put your smartness to unification, and Armenian nation will welcome you and equally the other parties’ leaders in a triumvirate. “
I have a simple question from ARF which is this:why you are not trying populate freed lands of karabakh which it is in our hands and barking about more land from turkey, Karabakh has almost 14000 S.K. land and has almost 140000 people it means for every kilometer squer lives only 10 person some of those hot headed
dashnacks shall move to Karabakh with there families and leave there life will be
more fun and will be more peace.
It’s unfortunate that ter-petrosyan isn’t reading any of Ara papian’s and Prof. Vahakn Dadrian’s articles in regards to land demands. I guess nowadays whatever party that is looking out to the best interest of the nation is being labelled “extreme nationalist”. he needs to get himself a forensic accountant in order to explain the 240,000,000.00 he amassed during his presidency.
Let’s put it in language the average man can understand. Levon always was and still is a CIA punk. His masters sit in Langley, Virginia and his dumb remarks just expose this fact even more. His ignorance about the diaspora only being focused on the genocide is a script straight out of the CIA/State Department playbook. We really don’t need ignorant and egotistical maniacs like Levon telling us what we should or should not focus on. He and his dummies in his fake party should go back to their casinos by Zvartnotz and have a few smoke and brews and leave the leading to others. On the other hand, I hope this teaches another lesson yet again to the ARF for having given this guy any time when they sat down with him months ago. Here is the lesson: Don’t make bedfellows with sell outs. As for Sergio, he’s just an oligarch punk and with a dash of CIA, oh, that’s what hey must mean when they say Armenia’s government is “under pressure.”
Dear Mr. Ter -Petrosian We are Very sorry Regarding Turko – Armenian Agreement or Karabakh issues it’s a long time that , YOUR “HENNA” IS COLORLESS.
Why can’t we united.
what a surprise that he doesnt mention the ramgavars or the hunchaks… and i “LOVE” the fact that everyone is against the historical commission but yet they are for the protocol…
Dum and Dumer are forgeting that without the ARF todays Armenia would have not exicted.
i don`t know wich school they have gratuated from, but surely past and new presidents have no noledge about Armenian history nor are they aware of the turkish munipletive polacies, therfore bouth of them are not qualified to run our homeland.
Mr. (chach batal) levonik, how do you want the diaspora not to concentrate on the Genocide, wich was the direct couse of its creation. if you don`t have the Ba……to demand our Historical wrights step out of the way and let real Armenian men do the job.
Gee, gosh, golly, wow, stunning, what a surprise… birds of a feather flocking together.
LTP said that the protocols’ joint historical commission was a bad idea because it did psychological damage to the Diaspora.
Since when did LTP care about the Diaspora? Or even anout the genocide? When he was president, I recall his making disparaging remarks about both the Diaspora and the genocide. LTP is a chameleon.
We, the diaspora, need to start making our way back to our homeland, if the Armenian government will not consider our voice or put into consideration our views then this is a sign that the time for repatriation has come!
To say the diaspora is only concerned with the genocide issue is a fallacy. I live in the diaspora and almost to the man our concerns “are” the strenghtining of Armenia. Unfortunately, I don’t see Armenia strenghtining its statehood by using strong arm tactics against its own people. When will Armenia get a leader of all the people? How can a poverty ridden country have so many millionaires? Perhaps that leader will come from the next generation? Where have I heard that before?
kocharyans know better than to go after the hand that FEEDS their greed & cirpurtoon. the ruskies own & rule Hayastan (for the most part) so, why would a wealthy powerful family from Hayastan want to wage war against the country that made them into who they are today? its easy to pick a fight with in our own ppl in our own homeland, but pick a fight with the ruskies either in moskva or even in Yerevan and you’ll see what happens to you. as much as I dislike ruskies, I know better not to mess with them. even with in my own homeland. russia is one of those what we call in america: a frienemy (friend + enemy)even if one of the gor gor davachan spyurrq papers in LA, NYC, PARIS, BEIRUT, MONTEAL, and else where published the same thing or bashed kocharyan family (which they never will) kocharyan would’nt go after them either. why wage a war on the hand that helps FUND your personal bank account .ahem ahem: HIMNADRAM
Ter-Petrosian just handed the ARF a pot of gold in removing himself and his party from the opposition. This makes the ARF the largest opposition party. Let’s see if it is able to live up to its newfound role.
The people of Armenia and the Diaspora are watching.