"HEYDAR ALIYEV AND I ARE OLD FRIENDS" ARMENIAN POLITICIAN ASHOT MANUCHARIAN SAYS
10.11.2000, MEDIAMAX, YEREVAN. "I really have connections with Aliyev. We are old friends with the Azeri President, we used to work over the resolution of the Armenian-Azeri conflict," the Political Secretary of the Union of Socialist Forces of Armenia Ashot Manucharian said in his interview to the Armenian "Iravunk" weekly.
According to Manucharian "all proposals that are today on the table of negotiations are absurd. And if I am again allowed to work with Aliyev, I am more than sure that we will manage to find the keys to the solution of the problem," Manucharian said.
Manucharian said that he has worked with Aliyev from 1991 to 1993. Moreover, the Armenian politician said that he was addressed in the past for finding solutions of various problems and got connected with Aliyev for resolving them.
On October 18 Manucharian announced that the Prime Minister Vazgen Sargssyan and the Speaker of the parliament Karen Demirchian, who were murdered during the October 27, 1999 act of terrorism in the Armenian parliament, have become the victims of the plan on territorial swap between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He accused the Armenian President Robert Kocharian of "hiding the main version of the act of terrorism - discord of Sargssyan and Demirchian with the plan on territorial swap between Armenia and Azerbaijan."
From 1991 to 1993 Ashot Manucharian took the posts of the Interior Minister of Armenia and the presidential advisor for National Security. He was the second powerful person in the state, the closest ally to the then president Levon Ter-Petrossian. In summer of 1993 he sign in his resignation because of disagreements with the foreign political course of Ter-Petrossian, stating about his intentions to start more seriously dealing with the Karabakh problem, therefore intending to consolidate some part of opposition round his person. Ter-Petrossian stated that the reason for resignation is the formation by Manucharian of "independent structure of power". In 1996 Manucharian was nominated as the presidential candidate from Scientific-Industrial and Civil Union, but loose the elections. -0-
According to Manucharian "all proposals that are today on the table of negotiations are absurd. And if I am again allowed to work with Aliyev, I am more than sure that we will manage to find the keys to the solution of the problem," Manucharian said.
Manucharian said that he has worked with Aliyev from 1991 to 1993. Moreover, the Armenian politician said that he was addressed in the past for finding solutions of various problems and got connected with Aliyev for resolving them.
On October 18 Manucharian announced that the Prime Minister Vazgen Sargssyan and the Speaker of the parliament Karen Demirchian, who were murdered during the October 27, 1999 act of terrorism in the Armenian parliament, have become the victims of the plan on territorial swap between Armenia and Azerbaijan. He accused the Armenian President Robert Kocharian of "hiding the main version of the act of terrorism - discord of Sargssyan and Demirchian with the plan on territorial swap between Armenia and Azerbaijan."
From 1991 to 1993 Ashot Manucharian took the posts of the Interior Minister of Armenia and the presidential advisor for National Security. He was the second powerful person in the state, the closest ally to the then president Levon Ter-Petrossian. In summer of 1993 he sign in his resignation because of disagreements with the foreign political course of Ter-Petrossian, stating about his intentions to start more seriously dealing with the Karabakh problem, therefore intending to consolidate some part of opposition round his person. Ter-Petrossian stated that the reason for resignation is the formation by Manucharian of "independent structure of power". In 1996 Manucharian was nominated as the presidential candidate from Scientific-Industrial and Civil Union, but loose the elections. -0-
