But for the People’s Party of Armenia (PPA), neither the Armenian movement nor the Armenian National Congress (ANC) would have the present-day scope and power, the ANC leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan stated at the PPA’s congress.

“So I consider it my duty, on behalf of the congress, to express my profound gratitude to all the PPA members and its supporters and wish them to continue the common cause that we must complete with triumph,” Ter-Petrosyan said. He underlined the significance of the congress in several aspects, pointing out three factors.

Ter-Petrosyan stressed that the PPA has been one of the permanent factors in Armenia’s political life for 12 years. Moreover, the party played a dominant role in 1998 and 2003 presidential elections, as well as in the 1999 parliamentary elections. “The PPA made a great contribution to the formation of the Armenian national movement in 2007 and the Armenian National Congress,” Ter-Petrosyan said.

He then tried to respond to the accusations brought against him by the authorities. One of them is that the ANC is a conglomerate of several political forces void of any ideology. “The talks cause by pro-government propaganda is nothing but a cheap trick aimed at diverting public attention from the country’s actual problems. We say to them: ‘you seized power by means of violence and are retraining it by means of violence.’ They answer: ‘you have no ideology.’ We say to them: ‘you are violating human rights and democratic freedoms, plundering the country.’ They say to us: ‘but you have no program.’ If the authorities think their wretched tactics will save them or affect the ANC’s popularity, they are erroneous. And everyone will be convinced of that soon. Isn’t it noteworthy that the ANC has been the central topic of the state propaganda, ‘independent’ analysts and the press for two years and a half? Can we imagine a better assessment of our activities?” asked the ANC leader.