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The diplomats were presenting Levon Ter-Petrossian’s position toward the dialogue to the international community in this manner in March 2008 that he persistently denied the offers to talk.
On the OSCE official website, all the statements that the permanent representative of Armenia to the OSCE/Jivan Tabibyan (see the picture) made on the matter are still preserved. Thus on March 6 2008 during 704th meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, he made a statement by which he particularly denied that Levon Ter-Petrossian had been placed under house arrest. He claimed that the ex-president had said himself to the international media that he was not under house arrest. Jivan Tabibyan repeated what the Minister of Foreign Affairs and other state officials were stating in those days that Ter-Petrossian could refuse the services of the state bodyguards and move on his own responsibility, “In that case the state will not be responsible for his security. Thus far, he has denied that option and that alternative. He preferred to be guarded under strict “criminal” conditions.”
However, let us get back to the part of the statement that refers to the dialogue that ambassador Tabibyan singled out as the basic issue. “The problem with the dialogue is that it takes two to tango”, stated he at the Permanent Council of the OSCE. “The dialogue has already been offered. An attempt to initiate a dialogue has already been made and the best proof of that is that three candidates have already joined and accepted the offer to cooperate and form the new cabinet.” However, he singled out Levon Ter-Petrossian out of them all, “The candidate whose supporters think that it is not the way to success, but the street is the best way to the power and not the voting room has been continuously denying the offer to talk.”
Jivan Tabibyan also mentioned that OSCE Ex-Secretary General Jan Kubis when he visited Levon Ter-Petrossian before a state of emergency was announced told the Armenian Ambassador to Slovakia, who was accompanying him, on their way to the airport, as follows, that Ter-Petrossian said to him, “You know, you are visiting the president of Armenia. Our next meeting will take place in 10 days in the presidential residence. We have definitely got 65% of the votes (despite he told the press previously 95%), we have got all 65%, therefore we are not going to give in.”
In this context, referring to the statement of the European Union, by which all the forces were called for a dialogue the permanent representative of Armenia to the OSCE stated that they certainly had certain leverage in government, but they could not influence the opposition. On March 13 2008 during 206th meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council, in response to Special Envoy of the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Ambassador Heikki Talvitie’s report, Jivan Tabibyan made a statement once again. Here the Armenian representative singled out as the most important statement the following what the opposition leader was going to do after the decision of the Constitutional Court, “Since without that decision and without the state of emergency being denounced he does not see any point in having a dialogue. This is exactly what he said.”
Meanwhile on March 5 in the speech made in the Constitutional Court Levon Ter-Petrossian stated that he completely accepted the offers of the EU, “1. To stop the state of emergency, 2. To release the political prisoners, 3. To ensure the equal information opportunities, 4. To conduct an international impartial investigation of the March 1 events and start a dialogue with the government. I accept all those points and, as I have said, I think of those as the basis for our activities both in the CC and in public.”
And the permanent representative of Armenia to the OSCE was stating, “My impression is that if the dialogue had been on their agenda it would have taken place before the March 1 events.”