YEREVAN. – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan has expressed a willingness to meet with opposition Heritage Party Chairman Raffi Hovannisian, who became the runner-up to Sargsyan in Monday’s presidential election, but Hovannisian is conducting a policy of sidestepping that meeting, Education and Science Minister Armen Ashotyan stated during a briefing with news reporters on Thursday.     

“The de facto number-one oppositional opponent conducted his entire [election] campaign [in a] very civilized [manner], by the vast use of Western technologies, and this assumes that the post-election practice likewise should be within the framework of that culture, which this candidate is trying to import to Armenia.      

[But] it is unfortunate that the [present-day] post-election culture [in Armenia] repeats the post-election culture of all previous elections, in the case when Western culture assumes that the defeated candidates are the first to call [by telephone] and congratulate the winning candidate,” Ashotyan said. 

In his words, all observation missions insist that Monday’s election was the best ever in Armenia’s history, and it opens a new chapter in terms of political culture in the country.