Two Words for President LTP: Setting a Feud Aside for Armenia
The president said bad things were said in the past. I answered in two words.
In this closing story, Harut Sassounian offers a personal illustration of his argument that Armenians on opposing sides must still find ways to communicate and cooperate for the country. He recalls that during Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s presidency, after years of sending millions of dollars in aid, the president began badmouthing him to high-level figures and even to his own board members. For a time, Sassounian stopped traveling to Armenia.
Then came a phone call: the president’s secretary invited him to meet. Sassounian flew out, went to the palace, and Ter-Petrosyan opened by acknowledging that bad things had been said in the past. Sassounian’s response is the heart of the clip. He told the president he would say only two words about that chapter and then they would change the subject and talk about how the Diaspora and Armenia could work together. Asked what the two words were, he said them in Armenian, something to the effect of “not pleasant,” and then moved on.
The story is clip-worthy because it is warm, specific, and self-contained, and it carries a message rather than just a grievance. It models the behavior Sassounian prescribes for repairing Armenia-Diaspora relations: acknowledge the hurt briefly, then put the country first. It connects to the episode’s final theme, whether Armenia and the Diaspora can rebuild trust after years of damaged relations, the abolition of the Diaspora Ministry, and increasingly partisan engagement. For a Diaspora audience, the anecdote is both relatable and aspirational, and it gives the episode a rare note of hope. Sassounian frames his own willingness to set feuds aside as a standard he hopes others, in Armenia and abroad, will meet in return.
Transcript
Harut Sassounian: And a minute ago, I mentioned Levon Ter-Petrosyan. So when he was bad-mouthing me and was trying to get me fired and all that, so for a while, I stopped going to Armenia because every time I went to Armenia, I used to go and see the president. So because he was opposed to me, I stopped going. And then one day I got a phone call from his secretary saying, the president's inviting you to Armenia to meet with him. And I was surprised, of course, but I said, of course, I'll be there tomorrow. And I went to the airport, got on a plane and flew to Armenia and I went to the palace and Levon said, I know some bad things were said in the past. I said, oh, he also told the secretary, cancel all my meetings today, I'm going to spend the day with Harut Sassounian. So when he said, you know, bad things were said in the past, I said, Mr. President, I'm going to say only two words about that part. And then we're going to change the subject and talk about how diaspora and Armenia can work together to help Armenia. He said, what are the two words? You know, I was speaking, of course, Armenian to him. In Armenian, I said, And I stopped there.
Asbed Bedrossian: Not pleasant.
Harut Sassounian: Not pleasant. That's all I said. And then we talked about helping Armenia, doing things, et cetera. So it's very difficult because things are really gone out of control.