YEREVAN. – The Armenian President’s Chief of Staff on Sunday telephoned opposition Heritage Party Chairman, former FM Raffi Hovannisian—who is declared runner-up to the winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the presidential election that was conducted on February 18, but who claims to be the real winner in the vote—to extend him an official invitation for another meeting with Sargsyan, but Hovannisian declined the invitation, the President’s press secretary Armen Arzumanyan told Panorama.am.   

To the query as to whether Sargsyan plans to meet with Hovannisian, Arzumanyan responded as follows:

“The Head of President’s Administration phoned Mr Hovannisian yesterday [Sunday] to officially invite him to a meeting. We regret to say that Raffi Hovannisian declined the invitation to meet and thoroughly and comprehensively discuss all issues.

We only have to hope that Mr Hovannisian assessed the situation correctly, and that he soberly realizes the dangers of de facto declining an invitation for dialogue.”