To Eduard Sharmazanov, a Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly and the press secretary of the ruling Republican Party, the speech of Levon Ter-Petrossian, the Armenian National Congress (ANC) leader and the first President of the Republic of Armenia, at the Pan-Armenian National Movement Congress (PANM) congress on Saturday was “an attempt to mark time” or “to justify somehow” made by the experienced politician, in order that “the society doesn’t say that he talked for a long time and didn’t say anything.” Actually, according to Sharmazanov, the ANC leader didn’t say anything in his speech; there was nothing new, no political novelty or analysis. “It was rather an answer to his former friends, his former comrades-in-arms, who had accused him of pursuing a certain foreign policy a few days before. I think it was an answer to some politicians who had left the ANC, who have strongly criticized Ter-Petrosian’s policy, rather than a systemic speech,” the National Assembly Deputy Speaker said. Let us remind that a few days ago, Davit Shahnazaryan, a former member of the ANC, criticized the ANC leader for taking a pro-Russian line during a TV show on Armenia, a TV channel, called R-Evolution.
Generally, Eduard Sharmazanov thinks that the majority of the society is not interested anymore in how Ter-Petrossian will participate in the upcoming presidential election or how he will try to justify this or that action of his, “The fact that even the guys from the first row who were dancing in the hall were not listening to Ter-Petrossian shows that the masses are not as interested in Ter-Petrossian, as they were in 2007-2008.” In response to a question of www.aravot.am whether the ANC leaders’ accusations of Russophilia and Westernism had anything to do with incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, Sharmazanov said that President Sargsyan shouldn’t be guided by what Ter-Petrossian said, and as early as a few years ago he had answered a question in an interview given to Russia Today whether he was a Westerner or a Russophile that he was an Armenocentric and pro-Armenian politician and his every step was taken in the state and national interest of Armenia.
What does the RPA press secretary think of the ANC leader’s call to wait for a few more days? Has the ANC leader made up his mind about announcing his candidacy for the upcoming presidential election, in his opinion? “I think that Ter-Petrossian has made up his mind, all right, and he knows what he should do,” Sharmazanov said, adding that in his opinion, whatever the ANC coordinator did, it wouldn’t be decisive in either Armenia or the opposition camp or any other context anymore.
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Nelly GRIGORYAN
