YEREVAN. – “The issue of my membership into the Prosperous Armenia Party [PAP] was discussed, and the [previous] President [Robert Kocharyan] had expressed his wish that I stay and work with him, since the Karabakh issue’s negotiation process was under an extreme condition, and [therefore] I continued working with the President.” Armenia’s former FM and current PAP member Vartan Oskanian stated this when commenting on Kocharyan’s announcement that the latter had convinced Oskanian not to enlist in the PAP back in 2007.            

“I had already decided upon my future courses of action a day before the 2007 parliamentary elections. I had said that I will leave office after working for ten years. The reason is that our problems are domestic, not foreign,” Oskanian added.    

And in response to the question as to whether the PAP could nominate its own candidate in next year’s presidential elections, Vartan Oskanian said this matter can be discussed solely after Sunday’s National Assembly elections.

Photo by Sona Barseghyan