YEREVAN, JULY 19, ARMENPRESS: A senior official of Armenian ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosian’s Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh) indicated today that the former president will probably be nominated as a contender for 2003 presidential election in a bid to regain the post, which he was forced to abandon in 1998.
David Shahnazarian, whose minor 21-st Century party merged several months ago with Ter-Petrosian’s Pan-Armenian National Movement (HHSh), told a today ‘s news conference that the HHSh is getting ready to participate in both municipal elections, slated for next autumn and also in presidential and parliamentary elections, scheduled for the first half of 2003.
Shahnazarian, who held national security minister’s position in the administration of Ter-Petrosian in the early nineties and was a special envoy on Karabakh issue, claimed the HHSh has retained enough potential and experience to nominate its own candidates for any level election.
Shahnazarian said the HHSh would be willing to form alliances with all forces that are opposed to the current authorities, but added that it would be more desirable that the parties run for elections separately and form alliances when they are in parliament.
Ter-Petrosian resigned after weeks of political turmoil in Armenia over the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, when it took a sharp turn in early 1998 and forces opposed to his compromise stance on the conflict regulation, compelled him to announce his resignation on February 3.
The roots of the dispute, which led to Levon Ter-Petrosian’s resignation, were in his decision in 1997 autumn to back the so-called “phased” option, proposed by the OSCE Minsk Group for a resolution of the conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, which called for the Karabakh Armenians’ immediate withdrawal from those Azerbaijani territories outside Nagorno- Karabakh which they occupied, prior to any discussion of Nagorno- Karabakh’s political status.
These proposals were unacceptable to the Karabakh Armenians, who argued that acceptance of the Minsk Group plan would increase the prospects for renewed hostilities, by disrupting the military balance between the Armenian and Azerbaijani forces and failing to require security guarantees from Baku; Baku would have no incentive to make concessions to Nagorno-Karabakh once Azerbaijani control of the occupied territories was restored and might be tempted to re-start hostilities; and Azerbaijani promises to grant maximal autonomy to Nagorno-Karabakh were questionable, given that Azerbaijan was a unitary state.
The Karabakh Armenians and their allies in Armenia insisted instead on a ‘package’ solution, whereby all issues pertaining to the resolution of the conflict are to discussed at once without any preconditions. The Karabakh Armenians also rejected any subordination of Nagorno-Karabakh to Azerbaijan.
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