YEREVAN. – A recording has appeared within Armenia’s political circles, and this recording has brought some clarity to the recent developments unfolding around the country’s opposition Heritage and Free Democrats parties, Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun daily reports.             

“According to the information leak from the American side, the American side had a recording of the private talk between [Heritage leader] Raffi Hovannisian and [Free Democrats leader] Khachatur Kokobelyan. According to the information leak, Raffi Hovannisian had said that he has a problem with going to the parliamentary elections with a new team and that the old team had carried out its tasks. In his turn, Khachatur Kokobelyan approved this initiative by Hovannisian noting that the new ‘Free Democrats’ have new faces and they can ‘lease’ them to Heritage. 

[Also,] An arrangement was made that Hovannisian and Kokobelyan, as the heavy artillery, will enter the [National Assembly] NA, subsequently, they will give up [their parliamentary] mandates, in the lead-up to the [next year’s] presidential elections, and engage in the presidential elections.     

As a result, the Americans did not intend to make a presidential nominee out of [American Armenian] Raffi Hovannisian, and ‘the cards got all mixed up’ right here,” Chorrord Inknishkhanutyun writes.