Suren Zolyan is sure that Levon Ter-Petrosyan tries to strain the situation.
– Do the candidates succeed in carrying out civil policy?
– The strategy is already obvious. Unfortunately, the clashing model has been adopted in Armenia since 1995, not the model of cooperation but the conflict, both the presidential and parliamentary elections in 2003 were held in that way. I think that these presidential elections exceed the adopted conflict of all previous elections, which, undoubtedly, comes from Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s behavior. Conditionally we can divide the candidates into several groups. Three of candidates the participation in the electoral process is a self-satisfaction; they have no chance to win but advertising them or their organization. The other group of candidates is comprised of 4 politicians who claim to the second place. Obviously the authority has provided his first place in this round and now his problem is to win in the first round. There is another candidate, who is out of the pre-electoral process, since he has adopted another strategy, and this candidate is not interested in the results of the elections but in mobilization of the constituency. The latter’s adherents don’t even hide that their main activities will burst after February 19. That organized electorate may make such a situation which will be full of dangers and may cause other developments. It will destabilize the situation and destroy the regime.
– You described the candidates and their interests and expectations, anyway the elections are over in the first round or the second round is also held. In your opinion, how many rounds will we have?
– We may confirm that Serge Sargsyan is the leading candidate who is about to win in the first round. Anyway it is a very serious problem because there are 8 candidates who are against the leading candidate. Each public poll confirms that Serge Sargsyan has a chance to win in the first round.
– It is known that you were very active during Ter-Petrosyan’s rule, how do describe his strategy today?
– I consider it very dangerous. He has always tried to strain the situation, provoke in his strategy, and dangerous intentions may occur this time as well, because that strategy is about to burst, a little more and it will be impossible to prevent. He knows very well that the innocent victims are a powerful weapon to mobilize the mass, this way of action is very dangerous, because unpredictable steps may be taken and the conflict will give new victims. We should separate this from the candidates’ programmes.