BAGHDASARIAN POISED TO RESIGN, QUIT ARMENIAN COALITION
By Ruzanna Khachatrian and Astghik Bedevian
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
May 11 2006
Artur Baghdasarian signaled on Thursday his intention to resign as
speaker of Armenia’s parliament and pull his Orinats Yerkir party out
of the governing coalition as its parliamentary faction continued to
shrink under apparent government pressure.
Three more wealthy lawmakers defected from Orinats Yerkir late
Wednesday and early Thursday, reducing to 11 the number of parliament
seats controlled by Baghdasarian. His party had 20 seats as recently
as last month, boasting the second largest faction in the 131-member
National Assembly.
The wave of defections, which began last week, is reportedly part
of President Robert Kocharian’s efforts to force Orinats Yerkir out
of the ruling coalition. Government sources have said Kocharian has
lost patience with its 37-year-old leader’s regular and embarrassing
attacks on his cabinet.
According to Heghine Bisharian, a senior Orinats Yerkir lawmaker
who remains loyal to Baghdasarian, the party’s continued presence in
government is becoming meaningless in such circumstances. “I personally
am in favor of his resignation and our departure from the coalition,”
she told a news conference.
“The entire Orinats Yerkir Party is of the same opinion,” said
Bisharian. Asked whether Baghdasarian shares that opinion, she replied:
“I think he will.”
Baghdasarian, who has been seen in the past as one of Kocharian’s
possible handpicked successors, has declined to publicly comment on
the situation.
Bisharian found it “a bit too early to speculate” about the possibility
of Orinats Yerkir joining the opposition ranks but made no secret of
its critical assessment of the state of affairs in Armenia. “Go to
the regions, enter villages and look at their plight.
You’ll see whether the [government] policies of the last 10-15 years
have changed anything in our life,” she said, echoing statements
regularly made by opposition leaders.
Bisharian also downplayed the damage inflicted on her party by the
defections. “Orinats Yerkir has more than 62,000 members and I think
the departure of a dozen of them won’t make any difference for the
party,” she claimed.
All of the defectors are wealthy businessmen with close government
connections, a necessary condition for engaging in large-scale
economic activity in Armenia. Yet another Orinats Yerkir deputy,
Tigran Yeganian, was expected to follow their example later on
Thursday. Yeganian, 28, is the youngest member of the National
Assembly. His father is the owner of a big and expensive restaurant
near Yerevan which is popular with senior government officials.
Bisharian stopped short of explicitly blaming the defections on
Kocharian. But she did deplore the strong dependence of Armenian
businessmen on the government. “Regardless of whether a businessman
is a member of Orinats Yerkir, a Republican or a Dashnak, they are
facing this danger [of losing their assets],” she said. “This could
happen to any political force and businessman.”
(Photolur photo: Oritanst Yerkir deputies attending a parliament
session.)