‘Sunk and Sinking Ships’: Opposition Leader on Robert Kocharian and Serzh Sargsyan

Armenia’s former foreign minister Vartan Oskanian joining the ranks of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) arises from specific calculations based on mutual interests, said Armenian National Congress leader and first president of the Republic of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrossian at an opposition rally in Yerevan this evening.

“Having political ambitions, Oskanian, naturally, needed support, while Prosperous Armenia, seeking to acquire the image of a solid party, needed Oskanian’s reputation in international diplomatic circles. For some reason, however, putting aside this simple explanation, conspiracy theory proponents try to see [former president] Robert Kocharian’s [involvement] in this political transaction and generally in any activities connected to the Prosperous Armenia.

“With this, on one hand, negating Oskanian’s and [Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik] Tsarukyan’s ability to make their own decisions, [such proponents] award them the status of puppets; on the other hand, terrifying the people with Kocharian’s ghost, they contribute to strengthening [Armenian President] Serzh Sargsyan’s despotism.

“In any case, if Oskanian’s BHK membership will deepen the discord emerging within the ruling coalition and will contribute to BHK becoming a fully independent political force, well, this step can only be welcomed.

“As for [Kocharian], ruling out neither Kocharian’s political ambitions nor the close relations between Tsarukyan and Oskanian, they, nevertheless, should be viewed as circumstances completely devoid of political aspects, since, as I mentioned once before, in the current situation, the ‘only man’ [Kocharian’s famous remark about himself] or the ‘youngest pensioner’ doesn’t have the slightest opportunity to become a political factor,” he said.

According to the opposition leader, as long as Sargsyan is in place, Kocharian doesn’t dare to dream about “being a political factor.”

“Robert Kocharian is a sunken ship, while Serzh Sargsyan a sinking one, and the force that ties its fate with them would not be able choose a shorter path to its political demise,” Ter-Petrossian said.