“You should ask Ter-Petrossian that question, but one can assume; I don’t want to make my assumptions public,” Petros Makeyan, the leader of the Democratic Motherland Party, a member of the Armenian National Congress (ANC), said during a conversation with www.aravot.am, talking about separating the Westerners’ propaganda from the Russophiles’ propaganda in Levon Ter-Petrossian’s speech at the Pan-Armenian National Movement (PANM) congress on Saturday.
We inquired whether what he said in that regard pertained to the people who had withdrawn from the ANC and had been criticizing the first president recently, in particular, Davit Shahnazaryan and Aram Sargsyan who had always talked in the context of “cutting the umbilical cord connecting Armenia with Russia.” “It is not ruled out. I said I had an assumption and speculation whom it was addressed to, but it is an assumption, and I don’t want to make it public,” Petros Makeyan said, adding that generally, Ter-Petrossian’s speech made that impression on him, “He described it well; he said I had given a lecture, and we listened to it.”
In response to a question whether the fact that the pivotal figures of the ANC, such as Nikol Pashinyan, Sasun Mikayelyan from Ter-Petrossian’s entourage, hadn’t been present at the PANM congress, showed that the ANC was at the stage of final disintegration, Makeyan said: “The assessment is too extreme; one cannot describe being or not being present in that manner. I haven’t heard their comments, but it is not right to suggest that the ANC is disintegrating just because of that. I have said many times that there are problems in the ANC.”
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What result will the first president’s nomination yield and is it possible to achieve a change of power now? Makeyan is optimistic: “If he is nominated, messages will be sent to the public; in that case, I think it may end in a victory. What didn’t happen in 2008 can be achieved now.”
During the congress that took place today, the Freedom Party officially announced party leader Hrant Bagratyan’s candidacy for the upcoming presidential election. In response to our question whether it was possible to unite the liberal forces around his candidacy, Makeyan said: “Our party has been struggling against the administration for 15 years and has a bad experience related to that; we want the struggle to end in a change of power. Our party doesn’t want to participate in the presidential election for no particular reason.”
Nelly GRIGORYAN
