Onnik Krikoryan at 2008 Presidential Election Monitor reports, that in a surprise move the former and first president Levon Ter Petrosian has held a meeting with representatives of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation — Dashnaktsutiun. The meeting is a suprise, says Onnik Krikoryan , given the fact that Dashnaktsutiun was outlawed under Ter Petrosian, and senior party officials were arrested and ARF newspapers were shut down then.
On 29th of September in “Simon Vracyan” Center of Dashnaktsutyun party representative of the ARF Office Armenia Hrant Margaryan and the representative of “Armenian Revolutionary Federation Supreme Body ” Armen Rustamian met Levon Ter-Petrosyan Aleksandr Arzumanyan. Levon Ter-Petrosyan was the initiator of the meeting. They discussed issues connected with internal political situation in Armenia and issues concerning coming presidential elections. Both parties found ideological-political debate necesary at this stage of development.
Via Oneworld Multimedia, via A1plus
Onnik Krikoryan further speculates, that the meeting will ‘raise some eyebrows among ARF-D supporters and not least in the Diaspora. For them, Ter Petrosian is considered something akin to a criminal and traitor and this news must appear strange after last week’s angry rebuttal of Ter Petrosian’s Friday speech.”
The news comes as a surprise even to active supporters of the former president. Aramazd call is a move worthy of a chess grandmaster, sounding really surprised, although he was perhaps the first blogger back in March 2007 to call for the return of the former president into active politics, and generally seems to know more about things going on with HHSh.
Ahousekeeper provides a link to the Regnum version of the news, also taking a brief look at the names of both parties: HHSh-Pan-Armenian national Movement (It’s rather “Turkish” then Armenian, the blogger says, was Pan-Armenian only back in 1989-90, and is rather like a swamp, not a movement), and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (although undoubtedly Armenian, it is not revolutionary for more then 90 years, and is not a Federation in its essence, but is rather a monolithic organization).
Mark Grigoryan is tired of politics, tired of Armenian-Azerbaijan conflict, Armenian-Turkish problems, tired of nationalism, elections and the fact, that the secret services of at least 3 countries are reading his journal. The guru journalist would rather prefer to sit somewhere in the autumn park and read poetry, but no… in this post he writes about politics again, because Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s meeting with dashnaks. There was no dialogue between them for 14 years, after LTP prohibited the activities of the party. The meetings mean that the first president is literally breaking into politics, and although not long ago the blogger was sure, that Ter-Petrossian has no practical chances, no we can see his return – step-by-step. Mark Grigoryan is inclined to believe Levon Ter-Petrosian’s statement, that he hasn’t decided if he will run, and looking at the movements Serzh Sargsyan is doing in Russia (trying to get Moscow approval in the forthcoming elections), and speculating about his possible visit to US with the same mission, Mark Grigoryan is sorry, that once again the common people are lost amongst the political dealings and nobody really talks about the actual voters, who still remember the “dark” and poor years of Ter-Petrossian’s rule. It will be interesting to see Mark Grigoryan says, and I wholeheartedly agree.
A1plus blog goes even further, asking the readers to comment, if Levon Ter-Petrossian is going to unite with Dashnaks. While nobody thinks that there is a slightest chance for such a possibility, it is still a valid question.
Gost_474_90 writes about “writing provocative posts” and getting in the Yandex.ru top list, and lists “writing about Serzh vs LTP” as the second most provocative way of doing that. If that is true, we can expect a lot more “provocative” posts in the Armenian blogosphere throughout the upcoming presidential elections, even as many bloggers, like Mark Grigoryan claim, that they’re tired of politics.
[…] was a local journalist based here. Now he works in the United Kingdom. The Armenian Observer provides an English summary of what Grigorian writes on the subject. There was no dialogue between them for 14 years, after LTP […]
BTW: Somewhat interestingly, I was told that the ARF-D’s Vahan Hovannisian and the Ter Petrosian family are related by marriage. Can’t remember the details, but it wasn’t a “distant” connection.
Or was it Vahan Hovannisian and Serzh’s family? Can anyone shed any light?
It’s Vahan Hovhannisian and Serzh Sargsian.
it is Vahan’s daughter and Serzh’s brother Sashik’s son.
All in the family, huh… The Armenian way 😉