What 3 Pieces of Advice Levon Ter-Petrosyan Gave to Nikol Pashinyan in 2018

Levon Zurabyan, the vice president of the Armenian National Congress, detailed during a press conference today the three pieces of advice given by the first president of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosyan, to Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan in 2018.

According to Zurabyan, the first piece of advice was to publish the last document received from the third president of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, regarding the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. He emphasized that this would help resolve issues related to the settlement more easily in the future and that everyone would see what kind of legacy had been inherited. “Ter-Petrosyan had done this back in 2007. He invited the American ambassador and said that regardless of who would become president in 2008—whether it was Serzh Sargsyan or myself—it would be appropriate to publish the Madrid Principles and fix it as official, so that the new president could proceed more easily towards resolution. And they did; the Madrid Principles were published for the first time in December 2007, after the meeting,” Zurabyan stated. He noted that only in 2020 did Nikol Pashinyan publish the Krakow document.

The second piece of advice given by the first president was related to improving relationships with Russia. Levon Ter-Petrosyan pointed out that Pashinyan had disrupted ties with Russia and had become unreliable for them. “Systematic work with Russia must be done through ministries, using various channels; work to elevate these relations to a more serious working level,” Zurabyan relayed.

Finally, the third piece of advice or request concerned the return of Vano Siradeghyan to the homeland, which Pashinyan also rejected. Zurabyan emphasized that the Ter-Petrosyan-Pashinyan meeting was presented in such a fake manner by Pashinyan's side that the first president of Armenia decided to refuse to have another meeting afterwards.