Its abnormal when I want LTP to be my president because he did make many mistakes, but today I say "I dream of a president that makes mistakes and is not just a criminal."

Dear Ed. To say, I am confused with such a misunderstanding of the real situation and potential further developments in our country. The issue is not about Levon or Serzh, or someone else. It's about the direction we're going to move in: a totalitarian regime or a liberal democracy. I vote for the latter one! No matter who will provide our people with real "framework" for such a development. But nowadays the only politician I believe to be able to perform that is Levon!

We are not playing house! This is a country why bring back a failed corrupt leader? It would be a big mistake and 10 steps back for Armenia and Armenians!

Avo, I agree with you

LTP's corrupt days are over. He's seen power, He's seen wealth, and he's seen persecution, and war. He feels obligated to uplift the people from this mess. I agree Levon had his rep back in the days. However, what we are seeing right now is total disgrace to our people. No one has stepped up against these crooks. The one person besides Levon that many Armenians thought could change the leadership with his young age, intellection, and support was Arthur Baghdassarian who sold out to Serzhik. There is only one person left who could get the country back with his experience, age, education, and knowledge. That is Levon-Ter Petrosyan. If you don't think so then propose someone else. Why isn't anyone else stepping up? LEVON IS a HERO. He's the only one who can bring our country back to where our dream is.

Levon supporters are nothing but a mindless, loud and obnoxious minority - they will never mount to much in our republic.

To Hrachya Your comments are amusing! Does Serj even understand what the Rule of Law is ? Stealing money from the people and spending it in casinos and buying real estate is considered is corruption and theft! Has Robert and Serj settled the Karabakh issue? But I have to agree with you, the LTP was corrupt, but Serj and Robert are even worse. 60% of Armeian's economy is underground, how does that consitute stablization of the country? Under whose watch did the parliament assassination occur and who benefited from it? Karen Demirchyan-hay azgi mecn arajnord. P.S. Do you know that Jirayr Sefilyan has been jailed for speaking against the clan ? He even expressed his support for Levon. I guess this information is censored in your agoump.

I agree with Hrachya completely. Serj IS a capable and well-experienced person. Kocharian supports him and, most of all, Vazgen supported him and spoke so highly of him. It's so funny when LTP tries to put down Kocharian and Serj when in fact he was the one who asked them to come and help him after he paralized the whole country and government. And they came and made things moving. You're also right about HHSH. They are corrupt gangsters, nothing more. Levon knows how low people think of them and that's why he suggested to change the name hoping the past record will be forgotten along with the name.

Mme Ter Petrossian does not cross herself because she is Jewish. That is the reason; is that a crime?

Serj is the leader that Armenia needs today, because he can uphold the law, stabilize the country, and his policies are pro-armenian, and not pro-turkish. LTP just wants us to be the turkish servants. NEVER AGAIN.

Please --understand that LTP is nothing but a hungry corrupt individual that wants to obtain power. Serj has good plans and Kocharyan laid the groundwork for strong Armenia. My family lives in Armenia and they love Serj and Kocharyan because their living conditions are better than when LTP was there . HHSH is a corrupt clan that does not follow the law, or care about armenians, karabakh and armenian genocide. IT was LTP that put all the dashnaks in jail illegally. How can one even follow this murderer turk? I am just shocked

Dear Ruben and David I have to disappoint you deeply telling you that I am Armenian from Armenia. I have experienced and soviet and Levon's and Robert's administrations. What concerns SS he has always been "tchutlic". I am simply ashamed to see the degregation of the presidents of Armenia. Just compare him with any at least with our neighbour presidents in our region and you will also be ashamed by his education level. He is out of date. May be he is a good organizer but never a president. He does not correspond to some set criterias for being a president.

Henry, Things can get worse ONLY if LTP and his clan make things worse! Our government has it's hands full with good, constructive work if only sore loosers don't waiste their time. I can see you try to convince everyone who makes positive comments about Arm. gov. Are you a hired help for LTP?

Tigran, All we want from LTP is TO-GET-OUT-OF-OUR-LIVES! I think the nation gave him their message very loud & clear . He has caused us enough sufferings & nobody has forgotten them. We don't want to see his face or hear from him A-NY-MORE!!!

Areg, There is an English translation of the Friday Ter-Petrossian speech here: http://tzitzernak.blogspot.com/2008/05/translation-of-ter-petrosyan-address-to.html

3 main points from his speech: 1- He clearly demonstrated that he will not tolerate any Azeri attack making use of the current situation in Azerbeijan. This is of course, does not correspend to the preceptions of those who keep insisting on LTP being an agent 2- He asked the US NOT to cancel Millenium funds to Armenia since that will harmt he people and not the regime. (Note that Kocharyan earlier said "let them cancel it, we find new funds") 3- He gave SS an exit strategy out of the mess that kocharyan had created, if he does comply with the west's demands and run an independent investigation. If he doesn't do it? then this is a clear sign of him hidinng something

Vahagn, where can I read LTP's full speech?

To Sako and all other who see things in "Russia or Turkey" terms. You are fools not to believe that Russia and Turkey have interests that unite them on a much higher level regardless of the Armenia factor. Neithyer can be trusted!!!!!!!

Dear all, I suggested instead of critisizing or praising Levon Ter-Petrosyan discuss the issues raised in his speech, which are rather well justified. It would be very interesting to learn such justified speech from Serzh Sargsyan as well.

Tigran sounds too naive. No doubt a healthy opposition will be more than welcome. But we're talking about a traitor, our enemy's lackey who comes to us in the shape of an "opposition" trying to convince us that he cares. When, in fact, his past performance shaws absolutely the opposite.

The Karabagh stalemate is beneficial to benefactors of both sides, meaning Russia for Armenia and US/UK for Azerbaijan. As long as that stalemate exists, it is easier to justify a corrupt dictator in charge of the country. UK and US are playing the same game with Azerbaijan as Russia with Armenia. They cannot control their oil interests there unless they have corrupt regime to deal with. Does this mean that they would like to have the war brake out again if possible, most probably not. They would go out of their way to prevent any possibility of that since it will then threaten their interests. That is the reason why Karabagh issue has not been resolved for such a long time. Even if LTP was elected president instead of SS, it is too late in the game now to resolve the issue. Back then when he tried to resolve the issue, Armenia had much higher upper hand and US/UK powers were not so entrenched in Azerbaijan yet.

We have an opposition and this is the best political achievement we have had during our independence.

If Levon and Serzh can't find a way to work their differences and work on rebuilding Armenia, they should both be thrown to jail. How can we not work towards a strong alliance with Russia, when our neighbor Turkey is using it's geographical advantage to dictate the US anyway it wants to. When you're such a tiny country you must select a super power to yield to, atleast until you have some say. For now, that super power can and should only be Russia, since US has more interest in the oil fields of Azerbejian and alliance with Turkey. I understand about the importance of building peace with our neighbors, but how do you work on peace with a neighbor that is not willing to negotiate? They want Karabagh, Meghri and soon after the destruction of Armenia as a whole, who do you suppose with should Allie with to protect our land? At this point, Russia can not afford a unified turkey and azerbejian, it is in our best interested to depend and build our alliance with Russia and not be stupid like Georgia. Serzh Sarkissian, being the asshole dictator that he is, is smart enough to realize this. LTP wants a closer alliance with EU, the same EU that just backstabbed it's Christian Serb country and gave a huge chunk of land to a new Muslim state.

David doesn't believe himself in what he is saying (I hope for him at least). For his "president" voted quite few people and most of them hate silently "their candidate". What about paid participation - even serj himself would laugh about this statement )))

Three obsevations: Levon's wife never crosses herself. Is this an issue for the Armenian presidential hopeful and for the voters? This has never been brought up. Levon's policies in mid 1990s resulted in evaporation of my (and thousands of other) family's life savings. Should Levon be held criminally responsible for this pillage? If it is not for the US/Israeli (aka Soros foundation) support, who else (Turkey/Azerbaijan?)might be financing Levon's campaign and should the sources (and thus intentions) of the funding (and funders) be made public?

My friends/Hayrenakitsner, Obviously all of you, in one way or the other, care about Armenia and its future. Let us not be so short sighted and let us look at the bigger picture of the reality in Armenia, starting from its independence, in order to understand why our political leaders are so corrupt and these issues will persist for quite a long time. Obviously, LTP did not invent corruption all by himself when he became president, since Armenia was ruled by Russia, under communist pretense of equality for all, for ~70 years. I think everyone knows that in order to rule a country efficiently, its essential to promote corruption into every aspect of the society and reward only those who are corrupt. And sure enough when LTP came to power this reality could not disappear overnight. Still, the corruption remained in the fabric of the Armenian society but the dependence on Russia went away because we became an independent country. However, that dependence on Russia had to return back since we engaged in a war with Azerbaijan. To LTP's credit, when war was over, and we started to breathe a little bit, he tried to make peace with Azerbaijan and Turkey, given that we had the upper hand in the negotiations, in order to lessen that dependence on Russia. This is contrary to misguided perception by many Armenians (specially ARF people) that LTP is an agent of the enemy and he wanted to sell the country to the enemy. Of course, Russia could not let peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan happen because it was contrary to their agenda in that part of the world. We need to understand that the reason that they helped us win the war is not because they care more about Armenians than Azeris but rather that was the next step for them to make Armenia more dependent on Russia and make the country the Russian outpost in Caucuses. And, of course, when LTP tried to make peace, the Russians, behind the scenes, went to great extent to prevent that, which eventually culminated in LTP resigning and their agents RK/SS to take over. The following ten years of RK’s rule, Armenia’s dependence on Russia, in every sphere of life, has increased dramatically and no positive effort has been spared in order to resolve the Karabagh issue since there was no willingness on Armenian authorities side. RK/SS are corrupt and their allegiance is to Putin/Medvedev and not to Armenian people. As long as they can amass fortunes in foreign banks and can control every aspect of life in Armenia, by maintaining corruption, they will make very minimal effort to improve the political situation in the country. The Armenian nation, if they had to choose the lesser of two evils, they should have chosen LTP since at least he took some actions that showed he cared about his people. We cannot go on hating our neighbors and depend on Russia for protecting us. We need to keep a balance and be more far sighted in our decisions.

The "Ramik" character here does not look too with it either. I have noticed from reading this website that Armenians here have a serious problem with perspective and objectivity, and also understanding the mechanisms of politics and history. Truly Sad.

I agree with "David" the "optimist" character here is most probably an agent provocateur from God know where. No mentally sane person familiar with Armenian politics would make those comments about the treasonous criminal called Levon Petrosian.

This "optimist" is definitely not an Armenian but an LTP supporter from the U.S. What people is he talking about? All Levon has behind him is paid participation from the lowest mass of hooligans. Real Armenians voted for the President.

Administrations all over the world are unable to do any good to their people. The generator of the administration is the people. As Lincoln said: Government for the people by the people. So the only and major role player is the ARMENIAN PEOPLE. We must rely on his mind, soul and body which has become one might and is leading his administrator LEVON TER PETROSYAN. God save him to lead his people and to be led by his people.

Funny, but the May 1st riots in Ankara resulted in ZERO DEATHS!!!!But still there have been calls for the Police Chief and others to resign because of their heavy-handed tactics in dealing with the protestors. Perhaps those in Armenia might take a look across the border and feel a pang of shame for the cover-up of innocent deaths still going on in Yerevan!!!!!!!!!!!

Grigor Sargsyan Democracy is exactly what the opposition is fighting for, of course there are some shady figures among opposition too, but obviously if there is a force which is fighting for democracy, it's not Serzh Sarkissian

I support my government and my president. We are lucky to have Robert & Serj after the tragic loss of Vazgen. People who try to discriminate between Armenians from Karabagh, Yerevan or Diaspora are the biggest enemies of the nation, just like Levon the Traitor!

The sad thing is that either side is ready to destroy the other one. Remember, we talk about citizens of Armenia. Only in case if somebody's guilt is proved they could be brought to justice. Any other reaction outside that loop is a facism and tirany. Leaning how to live with someone who does not share your views is an architask for this society. People just can't comprehend this. They just do not get it. Just count fairly the ballots. Europe can do it. Turks can do it. Armenians seems can do it but nobody believes them. Is history repeating itself ? Vasak, Meruzhan ... Is this nation programmed for self destruction ?

I didn't read the article, because something tells me I already know whats in it! I would just like to point out the nature of comments you are getting. It is either LTP needs to be hanged or RK needs to be hanged. One only needs to wounder where all this blind devotion to our politicians, who just don't care, goes. People should fight for their own rights, not for the rights of politicians that they agree with. One also has to ask if media or anybody else did anything to divert people's attention from politicians to themselves. If people want democracy, then democracy is what they should fight for, not LTP or RK or SS or what have you. If they don't know what they want, then they probably would be far better off if they mind their own business.

If this idiots follow that snake Levon and break the law destablizing the country, president and law enforcement should jail them according to the law. This is not 1990 s when Levon and his murders can just run around and kill people. It is a myth that armenians want Levon back. The ones that want him back is a small number of people who were and are in HHSH, who are corrupt and need to be jailed.

Thank You ashot, i think you are a smart man and understand that Levon is a turk and his money comes from azerbaijan. But kocharyan and serj are real patriots, they want to creat strong and stable armenia, they want the world to know about the Genocide and recognize it. What is Levon saying? Give karabakh away and become the turks slaves again , Levon is a snake and should be terminated as soon as possiblke.

I believe our president is an honorable man. So is Kocharian. They both are examples of integrity, patriotism and dedication. And who is Levon Ter Petrosian now after his infamous presidency and this past elections?... A political corpse, whose treason is revealed and himself disgraced. If he had any honor he would commit a suiside! We should watch out Alexandr Arzoumanian, another snake!

Gurgen--great idea, eradicating Armenians! Funny, I think I remember someone else coming up with that one before. Maybe you guys should think about actually doing something about Armenia's real, serious problems, and stop with the "hang-em high" talk.

We today have a serious cancer in Armenia. This terminal disease is Levon's HHSh party and all their supporters. Until this cancer is not eradicated Armenia's future as a viable state will remain in doubt. I hope that the state security apparatus in Armenia is up to the task of dealing with this problem.

SS and RK Murderers should be jailed for good!

Common Ghevond, that's really funny, 2.7 million for Serzhik :) do you really believe in this bullshit? If Serzhik had support of that scope he would not bother to talk about reforms and buy precious time to figure out how to survive. Reality is that these guys realize that they are naked with virtually no real support (does not mean that LTP has majority).

I think people like LTP don't deserve the freedom they have. If this happened in Russia, I wonder what the Russian authorities would have reacted against people like LTP. Lets not forget who started the corruption in Armenia or who was willing to forget the Genocide to normalize the relations with Turkey or who is ready to give up Karabagh...... one person LTP. More then half of the victims in March 1 were policemen! why? who killed the officer, the soldiers and the other civilians? LTP did all this to create chaos and to make a favour to Turkey and the US! All of us in Armenia and Diaspora are with our State and with Our Armed Forces. We remember the innocent victims of March 1 and ask the authorities to heavily punish LTP and his gang. Jail is not enough; they all should be hanged in public! Traitors should not be tolerated!

People of Armenia have spoken: they HATE Robert the Murderer and SS The Murderer! They deserve fate of Chaushesku and their supporters from Diaspora deserve to NEVER be allowed into OUR country! Hope Levon becomes a President and close the "doors" for that traitorous scum which call themselves "Armenians! Take your dirty hands off OUR country, shurtvats hayer!

Why is this criminal still around? Why is he still alive? And why are all those young idiots still behind him?

Hey, hey hold your horses guys! let's see who is the traitor: 1- On the issue of suspending Millenium challenges funds- Robert arrogantly said" let them (US) cut it, we find funds from somewhere else" Levon said in his speech "I urge the US not to cut funds becuase that will harm mainly the people not the regime" 2- on Karabagh, RK and Sergik are busy blaming the enemy and the world fro their weakness and have not yet shown any concrete effective attitude that can make a difference. Levon said (at the end of his speach )" let Azerbeijan know that it cannot use the internal tension in Armenia as an opportunity to attack Karabagh, if it does so, God forbids, I will command my people to live the current struggle against this corrupt regime and go and defend the our country" I suggest you all read his speech completely and thoroughly and then engage in dialogue, otherwise it is just about demagogue

Serzh Sarkisian should react strongly within the rights envisiaged in constitution to prevent the destruction of the statehood and nation. LTP was never good in building but is damn good in destruction. That is his competence. I am afraid after this round of destruction Armenia will never recover... It is sad...

Why is this traitor criminal still on the loose?

Is Levon Ter Petrosian going to be brought to justice or not? There's more than enough evidence to lift the immunity from him and do so. In true democracy no one can be above the law.I cannot believe that infamous creature has the guts to show his face in public after what he cost to our nation and continue to bark.

On this 3 May I just thought to myself that as coincidental as it may be, but apparently we are lagging behind Paris by exactly 40 years. Check out the events then. The question is Who is our Daniel Cohn-Bendit.

Why isn't this treasonous criminal jailed, hanged or expelled yet?

Ter-Petrosyans ultimate goal is to become president, and not to fight against corruption. Enough already. The people have spoken, 300,000 for Ter-Petrosyan and 2,700,000 for Sargisyan. Having said that, Sargisyan Must and Should fight corruption, have criminas arrested and fix the social and economic conditions of the people, otherwise the people, and myself a Yerevan resident, will eventually joib the opposition. For now, I am eager and open to give him a chance to prove himself, and by God, he should.

Now! it seems we are entering a lomg-term struggle period! although short term gains will be necessary along the way, this also has its great advantages: 1- give enough time for the civil society in Armenia to mature both in terms of overcoming pshchological fear and gaining new quality and quantity in terms of engagement 2-Avoid any quick-fix methodes and tensioning -ups. 3- wait for the right moment both internally and externally to give the current currpot regime a final push For those who are impatient! don't worry it took Ghandi 30 years (I think) and Martin Luther king several years.. for Armenia it is all about matter several months. I take it as the ultaimate test of persistence, integrity and freedom...