President Serzh Sargsyan has made a statement concerning dialogue with the ANC (Armenian National Congress) non-parliamentary opposition. This statement was made during the ongoing discussions within Armenian society over potential consequences of this dialogue and if such a surrender by the ANC will negatively influence its position as the only party expressing the interests of the people. The closer the parliamentary elections of May 2012 are, the more people are interested in the course of further development of the dialogue between the government and the opposition.
In his statement, the president considered dialogue and debate as "the only logical and acceptable way for the forces, living for the sake of the good of the Armenian people and development of Armenia," because all other ways are fraught with serious dangers and inevitable losses. According to Sargsyan, the initiative of dialogue with the ANC also came from the authorities, the process was initiated by them without any external pressure, despite some political forces, bewildered by this dialogue, trying to show that pressure played some role in the process. The initiative was the result of the deep and conscious conviction of the authorities. Sargsyan assessed the work with the ANC positively. He expressed hope for mutual awareness of the need for joint work aimed at maintenance and further development of the launched process. "From this point of view, the most important principle is clear: ultimatums are unacceptable, this way leads to nowhere. Attempts to turn dialogue into negotiations are unacceptable," the president said.
The only answer of the ANC to the attack of president was an announcement published half an hour after the statement made by Sargsyan. The announcement stated that, due to the ambiguity and opacity of the presidential statement, there was a need to discuss the thesis in the regional structures of the ANC.
Oddly enough, the statement of the president was accepted and commented on in the country ambiguously. The head of the faction of the opposition party "Heritage", Stepan Safarian, described the dialogue between the ANC and the government as an imitation. According to the politician, the dialogue is just a false front for certain agreements between the government and ANC concerning the distribution of seats in the parliament in 2012.
The president pointed out that the government and the ANC are not and cannot be the two poles of society, because Armenia is a unipolar country.
The party headed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan has changed the attitude of a part of society, which had previously sympathized with it, even without taking part in ANC rallies and demonstrations. The opposition has found itself in an ambiguous situation.
Sargsyan once initiated cooperation with the opposition party "National Unity", thus turning it into a political marginal within a year. In 2008, something similar happened to the "Rule of Law" party, whose leader cooperated with the incumbent authorities and had to content himself with the post of Secretary of the Security Council, as well as the nickname “traitor”.
