Armenia’s first president, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, has responded to the article published in “Haykakan Zhamanak” newspaper regarding Azerbaijan’s demands.
“The response concerns today’s publication by the RA Prime Minister’s personal/family media outlet, which is, in essence, a rejecting answer to the proposal to begin a dialogue between the opposition and the authorities.
The President values that publication for revealing Azerbaijan’s demands regarding the expected regulation of Armenian-Azerbaijani relations. That is, in essence, nothing other than the Azerbaijani draft of the text of an Armenian-Azerbaijani peace treaty, the details of which, as was noted in the RA First President’s September 26 interview, until now were known only to the Prime Minister and a narrow circle of the upper echelons of power. Armenia, naturally, has also prepared a similar draft, the details of which are not being disclosed, and it is right that they are not being disclosed, out of considerations of political confidentiality.
It is understandable that similar drafts are being prepared on both sides also within the platform of diplomatic contacts aimed at reconciliation in Armenian-Turkish relations. In this case, of course, no great surprises are expected. The Armenian-Turkish peace treaty will not, in essence, differ much from the Zurich Protocols signed on October 10, 2009, between Davutoglu and Nalbandyan.
Thus, it must be recorded that the necessity of the platform initiated by His Holiness the Catholicos between the authorities and the opposition can be considered exhausted, which, however, in no way diminishes His Holiness’s persistent efforts, which, by the very fact of the publication that occasioned this response, have already yielded their result.
Incidentally, the RA First President also deems it necessary to emphasize that thanks to His Holiness’s initiative a significant event took place: since 1998, the first serious political debate was held in Armenia”:
