WikiLeaks Dubs Hovik Abrahamyan As Tigran Sargsyan’s Main Rival

WIKILEAKS DUBS HOVIK ABRAHAMYAN AS TIGRAN SARGSYAN’S MAIN RIVAL

PanARMENIAN.Net
September 5, 2011 – 18:08 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – WikiLeaks whistle blowing website has released
another stack of cables classified by deputy head of U.S. diplomatic
mission in Armenia Joseph Pennington after meeting with Armenian
Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan.

The meeting described focused on Armenia’s foreign policy and internal
reforms. According to Pennington, Abrahamyan called Prime Minister
Tigran Sargsyan, viewed as a reformer in Armenia, “a person whose
words don’t match his actions”.

As Pennington noted, in a conversation with Sargsyan, Abrahamyan
failed to get a clear response as to the means necessary to fight
corruption and oligopoly.

According to Pennington, without any noticeable sense of irony,
he went on to ridicule the PM’s asset declaration draft law that
would require 500 senior public officials to come clean about their
holdings and business interests.

In his comments Pennington stressed Abrahamyan is widely considered
one of Sargsyan’s most formidable rivals, and someone who is carefully
building up his own power base.

“With detainees or the NGO law, for example, Abrahamyan
likely concluded there was decent upside and limited cost to
at least presenting himself as an advocate for inclusiveness and
reconciliation. But where a reform agenda collides with his personal
or political interests, as with a draft law requiring him to reveal
his considerable business holdings, he reverts to what most suspect
is his true, thuggish form,” he said, according to cables released.