Armenia faces challenges while attempting to normalize relations with Turkey and resolve Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, said RA first President Levon Ter-Petrosyan at the XIX congress of Social Democrat Hunchakian Party. According to him, the challenges are corruption, lack of democracy and the rule of law. He said every single public official in the country has a private business and knocked up a fortune.

Ter-Petrosyan also underlined that there are no political prisoners anywhere around the globe except for Azerbaijan as well as Asian and African states. And this is exactly what weakens Armenia’s hands. “Each state prisoner costs Serzh Sargsyan concessions to Turkey and Azerbaijan,” he emphasized. The ex-President of Armenia pointed out that situation would have been dissimilar if the Diaspora shows different attitude towards the 2008 presidential elections in Armenia as well as March 1 events in Yerevan instead of supporting the authorities’ actions on behalf of certain organizations, adding: “Let them admit guilt. I am glad Hunchakian party is not among these organizations.”

“I do not call Diaspora to interfere in Armenian internal affairs. But just as Armenia should care of Diaspora problems, same way it has to express its standpoint on developments in Armenia,” Ter-Petrosyan stated. He is confident, Armenian society will remain immature and fall short of global challenges if rule of law and democracy do not gather momentum.