YEREVAN, MARCH 1, NOYAN TAPAN. "Another such a policy of initiative, and nothing will remain of Armenia and Artsakh," the first President of Armenia, leader of the Armenian National Congress (ANC) Levon Ter-Petrosian said at the March 1 rally, when commenting on the foreign policy conducted by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. In his words, the talk that the Armenian-Turkish rapprochement has allegedly reached a deadlock is a myth. In reality, according to the ANC's leader, Turkey has achieved what it wanted: it suspended the Armenian Genocide recognition process, and now there is no need for Turkey to hurry and it will continue negotiations with Armenia only in case of progress that it expects in the Karabakh problem. L. Ter-Petrosian said that Turkey proved long ago that it is not a country to be afraid of any pressure. He declared that all this means that the foreign policy of Serzh Sargsyan has failed shamefully. As regards the symbol of March 1, L. Ter-Petrosian said it is a day of remembrance of the 10 victims of the March 1 events and a day for giving a comprehensive assessment of that crime. He added that while speaking about the 1 March 2008 events, many forget their initial cause - the rigged presidential election. L. Ter-Petrosian underlined that if election rigging had not been committed, people would not have held rallies for 10 days, while those who seized power would have needed to resort to violence. By his forecast, one day the organized nature of the March 1 slaughter will become the main argument in the lawsuit to be brought against the former President Robert Kocharian in the Hague Court. About a dozen speeches were made prior to L. Ter-Petrosian's speech. The member of ANC Vahagn Khachatrian and the former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian spoke about the gas price growth, noting that it has no relation to the rise in the Russian gas tariff. In H. Bagratian's words, in this way the Armenian authorities "put an additional tax on the people so that the latter will subsidize the rich willy-nilly". After the rally, the participants marched through central streets of Yerevan.

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