After October 27 the president of the RA asked for guarantees

  Ex-minister Gagik Shahbazyan tells another interesting detail about former times

–          So you interrupted our previous conversation at the fact that you were appointed the Armenian ambassador to Russia and you yourself asked to transfer you to another job, because it was hard for you to work with Robert Kocharyan.

–          Yes, I could go on and retell all the facts about my relationship with Robert Kocharyan after I was appointed the Armenian ambassador to the Russian Federation, which will completely explain who he is. Particularly, how he suggested doing business through the embassy in Moscow, his suggestions about Karabakh, which were passed through me, his hysterical reactions to the Russian mass media reports and his inappropriate attitude during Levon Ter-Petrossian’s resignation and the subsequent elections and lots of other things. Nevertheless, I think that this interview does not aim at discovering Robert Kocharyan’s true nature, it is rather known. Maybe later, when I talk about the relationship with Russia as an example I will mention some other facts too.

Meanwhile I want to mention only one fact, which concerns my recent communication with Robert Kocharyan. After the events of October 27 1999 Robert Kocharyan’s meeting with a certain high-ranker took place in Yerevan. And I was present at the meeting, during which Robert Kocharyan was offered to move to Moscow. And Robert Kocharyan was discussing the conditions, on which he would visit Moscow and was asking for guarantees, and since the Russian side does not keep its promises in these kind of deals, he mentioned examples of that. It seems to me that the Armenian president should tell the people, who make him such an offer, to go to hell and not negotiate about the conditions and guarantees. At the same time, I want to say that after the events of October 27 I met a whole set of Russian and American high-rankers in Armenia. And from November to February 1999 with prime-minister’s commission I visited Moscow, Europe and the US quite a lot of times to discuss the possible outcome of the interior political situation in Armenia. That is why after the resignation of Aram Sargsyan’s cabinet I was advised not to return from America and that is what I did.

–          By the way, you did not plan to reflect on the reaction following your interview, but I must ask you to make an exception and to clarify on the allegation that Robert Kocharyan’s chief of office made after your previous interview about the companies’ debt, which was redefined as an intergovernmental debt, “The fact that this problem is not resolved, disrupts the relationship between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Armenia closing the road of more or less considerable investments. The resolution of this very problem made it possible to start huge-scale cooperation in the economic sphere. The first step was the establishment of “ArmRusGazard”, which allowed us to keep prices of electricity and gas in Armenia unchanged for 10 years. In effect that was the time when the barrier preventing the bilateral cooperation was eliminated.”

–          Concerning the answer signed by Viktor Soghomonyan one could thoroughly examine a “Mickey-Mouse paper” such as that. However, I must say that none of my sayings was denied. Moreover, he approved that Robert Kocharyan was the one who signed the document, which recognized the debt existing between the companies as an intergovernmental. Since I was the one, who should sign it, as a co-president of the Russian-Armenian committee, if he signed the paper, then I should have rejected it. Along with that the expressions like “most probably”, “what if”, “maybe”, “tired”, “trembling hands” used in the answer are of a suggestive nature or concern morality which turn into an effort to personally insult, with the “tough guy’s” thinking. And I, as was already said do not speak about possibilities, but only about facts. And I don’t think it is appropriate to give lessons of morality to the immoral people and reflect on the persons, who are faceless.

Regarding the facts mentioned in that “Mickey-Mouse letter”, I want to state that at the time the negotiations about “ArmRusGazard” started, Robert Kocharyan was still in Karbakh. Now we can examine those working papers and see my signature with the date. So those negotiations started quite early. And when the document was signed the share of the Armenian state was 45 percent, and now it is 20, this happened because of Robert Kocharyan’s “cleverest” economic policy. And as concerns the argument that it contributed to the development of the Russian-Armenian relationship, I want to say, as a man, who was in that process in particular, that the best relations between Russia and Armenia were at the time of Yeltsin-Ter-Petrossian’s presidency. And these are not my words. Мany Russian politicians made public statements in reference to Yeltsin’s 80^th birthday. And if we read carefully what they said we will notice how much Yeltsin valued and respected Levon Ter-Petrossian. And this is not what I say, this is what Boris Yeltsin’s Russian colleagues say. And this is the reality.

To be continued…

P.S. Considering the whole set of questions asked after the previous interview, we want to inform you that the continuation of the interview with Mr. Shahbazyan will be published once a week.