Analyst: Levon Ter-Petrosyan with his statements seeks "to stay afloat" till 2017 elections

  Leader of the Armenian National Congress, first president of Armenia Levon Ter-Petrosyan, makes load statements trying "to say afloat" till the parliamentary elections of 2017, Stepan Safaryan, the head of the Armenian Institute for International Security, told reporters on March 9. 

The expert said that after the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), there is vacuum on the opposition field, which sparked internal squabbles between the opposition forces. "Since nature abhors a vacuum, ANC has decided to take the Liberty Square and stay there, at least, till the parliamentary elections," the expert said. 

He is sure that the public discontent and disappointment has grown too high and the political forces will hardly manage to mislead the public. "PAP is back to the path it took in 2007 and will never join the radical opposition. What happened to Gagik Tsarukyan will hold businessmen from joining the opposition," he said.

He thinks that by slamming Tsarukyan, the president has cornered his team, which little differs from Tsarukyan with their intellectual abilities. "The Republican Party will have to change its team ahead of the 2017 elections. 

At the PAP Congress on March 5 Gagik Tsarukyan stepped down as the PAP leader and announced that he leaves the big politics. Secretary of the PAP parliamentary faction Naira Zohrabyan replaced him on the posts of the PAP leader and PAP faction head saying the party will be operating in the opposition camp. Ex-minister of foreign affairs of Armenia, parliamentarian Vartan Oskanian, Gyumri Mayor Samvel Balasanyan and another 7 parliamentarians have already left the PAP.