Levon Zurabyan's and Vardan Oskanyan's talk in the cafe. Zurabyan blames Nikol and Bagratyan (Record)

The record of a secret conversation between a senior opposition MP, Levon Zurabyan, and an ex-foreign minister of Armenia, Vartan Oskanyan, has appeared on the Internet.

The footage posted on the video hosting site YouTube shows the two politicians discuss tactical steps towards nominating a united presidential candidate. No details as to the date and place of the record are available, but the meeting apparently took place in a café.

Zurabyan, who is the head of the opposition Armenian National Congress faction in parliament, explains the meaning of “alternative” to the ex-minster. “The alternative is to propose candidate to just ensure our team’s work … You see if Levon [Ter-Petrosyan] is not any of them … I say theoretically, receiving seven to ten percents is not a disgrace,” he says.

Two lawmakers of the opposition alliance, Nikol Pashinyan (the editor-in-chief of the Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper who was jailed over the March 2008 post-election unrest) and Hrant Bagratyan, a former prime minister, were referred to as possible presidential runners at the meeting.

Zurabyan then addressed other tactical issues. “The [Armenian National] Congress managed to retain … say in a way that such deals with the PAP are possible as it is tactics,” he says, considering the first president’s decision not stand as a candidate in the upcoming election a major problem.