At that time Armenia was in a most serious condition; the country's budget was only $300 million (…). Now leave all that, go after the former [authorities], catch this, catch that, spend all your energy on something that in the end 2-3 people will be tried? Robert Kocharyan, the second President and leader of the “Armenia” bloc—for the snap parliamentary elections on June 20, on Thursday stated this during a meeting with the residents and this bloc’s active members of Kotayk Province, when asked whether he regrets that in 1998—when he came to power—he did not give a political assessment to the then former authorities.

"We should not forget that at that time there was internal political tension in the country, there was dissatisfaction with the authorities. But at the time we did not lose the [Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh)] war [like we have now], having a loss, and also having such casualties; such things did not happen then. At that time it would truly have been more of a manifestation like a vendetta, which I did not want to do. The past has a dangerous thing: you can go and stay there, not being able to come back [from there]. When you look at the past all the time, you see the future with difficulty," he said.

According to Kocharyan, from we need to look ahead in terms of governance. "You always fall on something when looking under the feet; you have to look ahead a little," he added.

And referring to the “Meghri corridor” plan involving Azerbaijan, Kocharyan said: "In general, we should not use the word 'corridor' now. If it’s about all communications, liberated work, yes, let all communications work freely. What does 'corridor' mean? At this moment discussing [it] as a 'corridor' is not beneficial to us [Armenia]. When they say, 'It will open soon, everything will start working,' etc., it is not so because if they—and they have already announced [that]—Turkey will build a railway from [the Azerbaijani exclave of] Nakhchivan to [Turkey’s] Igdir [Province]; it will be a section of only 82-87 kilometers. Once they connect it, they will not open that railway, that piece. It will become a corridor that will connect Turkey with Azerbaijan and the countries of Central Asia."

According to the second President of Armenia, this corridor will bring about very serious consequences in terms of geopolitics.