With next year’s presidential election in Armenia drawing ever nearer, all focus remains on the republic’s first president, Levon Ter Petrosian. Although not considered likely to return to Armenian politics until recently, the nomination of the former head of state who was forced to resign in an internal coup staged by key ministers in 1998 looks more probable with each passing day.

Analysts, journalists, opposition activists and some part of civil society, however, expect that Ter Petrosian will make his decision known after holding a public rally in Yerevan’s Liberty Square on 26 October.

Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian will hold next week his first public rally in Yerevan in more than a decade to make a more detailed assessment of the situation in Armenia and gauge popular support for his return to active politics.

The rally, scheduled for October 26, will be a further indication that he is leaning towards participating in next year’s presidential election. It will come one day before the eighth anniversary of the 1999 armed attack on the Armenian parliament that left then Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian, parliament speaker Karen Demirchian and six other officials dead.

Ter-Petrosian allies said on Tuesday this is the reason why the rally will also feature two other opposition speakers: Sarkisian’s brother Aram and Demirchian’s son Karen Demirchian.

“We will discuss the political situation, propose solutions and outline the tasks that need to be accomplished soon,” Aram Sarkisian told RFE/RL.

Sarkisian said the gathering will be “very important” for Ter-Petrosian’s increasingly likely presidential bid, predicting that it will attract a huge crowd. “He who controls the street is the master of the country,” he said.

The full post is available on the 2008 Presidential Election Monitor Blog.