ARMENIA: GOVERNING PARTY PREPARES FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
Haroutiun Khachatrian
EurasiaNet, NY
Nov 12 2007
Armenia’s dominant political party is not taking the upcoming
presidential election lightly. At its recent party congress, the
Republican Party of Armenia nominated Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian
to be its presidential candidate in the February 19 election. Party
leaders also opened a rhetorical offensive against Sarkisian’s main
challenger, former president Levon Ter-Petrosian.
The congress, held November 10, was designed to reinforce in the
minds of voters an aura of the Republican Party’s invincibility. Held
in an indoor sports arena, the speaker’s podium at the congress
was flanked by giant television screens, infusing the event with
Western-style glitziness heretofore unseen in Armenia. Delegates,
as widely expected, anointed Prime Minister Sarkisian as President
Robert Kocharian’s would-be successor. First, Sarkisian was elected
as party president, a position that has been vacant since the death
of his predecessor Andranik Margarian. Then, delegates unanimously
backed Sarkisian’s presidential candidacy.
In an attempt to cement the front-runner image in the minds of the
electorate, party leaders emphasized the fact that its membership
now stands at 135,000, up from roughly 25,000 as recently as 2005.
According to a report presented by Tigran Torosian, a party vice
president and chairman of the National Assembly, the Republican Party
enjoys a hammer-lock on local political power, with 65 percent of local
administrative posts being held by its members. On the national level,
the party has an outright majority in parliament. [For background
see the Eurasia Insight archive].
Sarkisian, speaking at the conference, cast himself as the guardian of
continuity, and the candidate best able to defend Armenia’s interests
in the international arena. Referring to the ongoing negotiations on
a Nagorno-Karabakh peace settlement, one of the country’s top foreign
policy priorities, Sarkisian said that, if elected, his administration
will "never allow Azerbaijan and Turkey to impose their will on us."
Despite enjoying preponderance of influence over Armenia’s political
process, party leaders are evidently concerned about Ter-Petrosian’s
entry into the race. [For background see the Eurasia Insight
archive]. Torosian devoted a considerable portion of his report to
bashing Ter-Petrosian, warning about the danger of "revanchism."
Sarkisian followed up with a blistering attack on Ter-Petrosian’s
leadership during the early and mid 1990s. Ter-Petrosian, according to
Sarkisian, left "people on the brink of despair, a ruined economy, a
mood of defeatism." The prime minister also insisted that Ter-Petrosian
apologize for his political "errors."
When he declared his own candidacy in late October, Ter-Petrosian
said his intention was to dismantle the "pyramid of corruption"
over which Sarkisian and Kocharian allegedly presided. In response,
Sarkisian shot back November 10 that Ter-Petrosian was seeking to
"dismantle the pyramid of our statehood."
Outside of the party congress, the machinery of state under the
control of the Republican Party of Armenia appears to be gearing
up for a campaign against Ter-Petrosian. Media observers note,
for example, that news reports about Ter-Petrosian have virtually
disappeared from state-controlled outlets. Tax inspectors have also
moved against businesses owned by one of Ter-Petrosian’s most important
financial backers, Khachatur Sukiasian, himself an independent member
of parliament.
In comments published November 7 in the Aravot daily, Sukiasian accused
the government of instructing various state agencies to investigate
his businesses in retribution for his political activities. "I take
all this quietly. My business[es] [are] absolutely clean," Sukiasian
insisted. He added that he would resist the government pressure using
all legal means at his disposal, including an appeal to the European
Court of Human Rights.
Ter-Petrosian, meanwhile, continues to campaign. At a November 3
appearance, Ter-Petrosian said that, if elected, he would seek to
cooperate with the current, Republican Party-dominated parliamentary
majority, adding that he would work with any prime minister than the
legislature nominates, except "the current one."
Editor’s Note: Haroutiun Khachatrian is a Yerevan-based writer
specializing in economic and political affairs.