Ter-Petrosyan vs. Kocharyan

The system established by Robert Kocharyan now works against its founding father.

The previous week saw scandals involving two Armenian presidents. Speaking at the National Armenian Congress, Levon Ter-Petrosyan has severely criticized the foreign policy of the present governing authorities and expressed his view on the situation in the governing elite, which has “wallowed in panic, squabbles and mutual harassment".He cited the meeting of Armenian oligarchs in Dubai. Former president Robert Kocharyan took part in this meeting and made an attempt to persuade oligarchs of the weakness of Serzh Sargsyan as a politician and therefore the necessity of him coming back into power to secure the ruling regime.

"Kocharyan is terrified even by the thought of loosing Sargsyan’s ‘upper storey’, even though he took responsibility for death of ten people to create it. He is well aware that in this case he will lose all his wealth, gained during the presidency, but also will come up for trial. Kocharyan is trying to spread his fears among the criminal - oligarchic elite, telling stories about their unenviable future if the opposition takes power. In other words, the worries of Kocharyan have nothing in common with the difficult economic situation in the country and Karabakh," said Levon Ter-Petrosyan. He expressed confidence that these actions will not get a good response from the oligarchs, since they realize who rules the country: "They know that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. And no matter that Sargsyan is an untalented politician his ‘thievish’ authority will crush Kocharyan".

The reaction of the second president was not long in coming. According to the words of Kocharyan, opposition leaders are playing a strange game, betting on whether he comes back into big politics or not. "I would recommend they ease the strain, since they can cop some very unpleasant diseases in this age. If I decide to come back I will announce it in public for sure, like I always do. I bet they would realize it pretty fast if they start thinking with their brains rather then with other parts of the body." Robert Kocharyan said. He has also denied claims of his participation in the Dubai meeting.

Nevertheless, the opposition has received his statement as showing of weakness. ANK office coordinator Levon Zybaryan has noted: "The client is definitely nervous".

The current president also hasn't hesitated to comment on statements on Kocharyan's possible comeback: "Robert Kocharyan has always been an active politician…I consider it is normal that Kocharyan expresses his opinion on this or that event,” Sargsyan’s said.
Meanwhile, according to the unconfirmed information provided by the opposition, there are new tendencies among the ruling elite. Particularly, Sargsyan's team is going to draw away some  members of the strongest opposition block "Bargavach Aiyastan"/"Prosperous Armenia", which supports Kocharyan, and by this means weaken his political influence.

At the same time the opposition makes efforts to convince public opinion of the remote probability of the realization of Kocharyan's ambitions. "We are purposefully working on the debunking of the ‘Omnipotent Kocharyan’ myth. He is very dependant on this myth. So no wonder he is nervous, since he feels we can foresee all his steps in advance," an opposition politician told VK.

 Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for VK.