YEREVAN. – The civic movement is just one necessary element, but it is primarily the political forces that can solve the country’s problems. 

Opposition Armenian National Congress (ANC) Party leader, First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan told the aforesaid to RFE/RL Armenian service, during Saturday’s convention of the ANC Youth Union, which has been renamed ANC Youth Congress.   

“Let me say the opposite, too. The political parties cannot achieve anything without the support by civic movements,” he added.

Reflecting on constitutional reforms, Ter-Petrosyan said: “I don’t believe in any reform launched by these authorities. The more they reform, this country is destroyed that much more. All of their ‘reforms’ aim to destroy the country.”

To the reporter’s query on his view with respect to the “initiative” to join the Customs Union, the First President responded:

“They [the Armenian authorities] have not initiated [it]; they have initiated the European association. [But] now, they went, [and] entered the Customs Union in a disgraceful state.”