Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian Has Cancer Surgery in Glendale

YEREVAN (RFE/RL) — Former President Levon Ter-Petrosian has undergone surgery for intestinal cancer at a hospital in the United States, his press secretary said on Monday.

In a written statement, Arman Musinian said the operation took place in Glendale Memorial Hospital in California on January 15. He said Ter-Petrosian was discharged from the hospital on Sunday and is now “continuing his recovery at relatives’ home” in the U.S.

Ter-Petrosian and his family, Musinian went on, want to thank the surgeons and other hospital staff for their “professional medical assistance, special care and warm and humane attitude.” The statement did not say when the 71-year-old politician will return to Armenia.

Levon Zurabian, the deputy chairman of Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) party, said on January 18 that the ex-president’s illness is serious but “curable.”

Ter-Petrosian served as independent Armenia’s first president from 1991 to 1998. He set up the HAK in 2008 after contesting a hotly disputed presidential election as the main opposition candidate. The HAK has since been one of the country’s leading opposition forces.