Levon Ter-Petrosyan's resignation: 19 years later (video)
On February 3, 1998, Levon Ter-Petrosyan stepped down as President of Armenia. Earlier, speaking about one of the well-known pro-government figures, he said jokingly, “Do you know the Lord's Prayer? – No, I do not. – When I say you are not an Armenia, you do not believe me. – I am an Albanian.” Levon Ter-Petrosyan worked with the second figure a bit longer. He was not in the mood to joke about him, especially after the deadly clashes of March 1, 2008. “Serzh Sargsyan is a sadist…” Speaking about former Prime Minister Vazgen Sargsyan, the first president said ‘no one is worth even his little finger.’ After the October 27 parliamentary carnage, Levon Ter-Petrosyan said, “After killing him [Vazgen] they glorified him. I cannot imagine a much greater sacrilege. Imagine Vazgen Sargsyan were alive, what would the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) do today?” Levon Ter-Petrosyan was forced to step down in February 1998 after advocating additional concessions over the Karabakh issue. The first president used to say that Artsakh was only ‘an excuse.’ “I only requested to take a step back in the Artsakh issue and to freeze the situation.” The prime minister and two ministers did not accept the phased settlement of Karabakh conflict proposed by Levon Ter-Petrosyan. Thanks to their efforts, Karabakh was left out of the negotiations. “We think it is necessary to involve Nagorno Karabakh in the talks.” The conflict was not resolved during the presidency of Robert Kocharyan. Karabakh was not returned to the negotiating table. The Madrid principles and the Key West document became the topic of discussions. In 2008, Robert Kocharyan transferred power to his successor Serzh Sargsyan at the expense of ten victims. “The day after tomorrow, I shall vote for Serzh Sargsyan because I know him better…” There has been breakthrough in the long-standing dispute over Nagorno Karabakh in the past nine years when the country has been governed by Serzh Sargsyan. In the result, a four-day war took place in Karabakh last April and Karabakh lost 800 hectares of land in the hostilities which were announced to be of no “strategic and tactical importance”. Yesterday, Serzh Sargsyan spoke about the courage of political figures, saying that he would not make any concessions in the Karabakh issue under pressure.
