WHY RUSSIA IS REALLY WEAK
Kavkaz Center, Turkey
19.09.2006
News stories about Russia these days follow a predictable theme. The
country is resurgent and strong, and the West must adjust to this
new reality.
But that story line is wrong. Russia is weak and getting weaker.
Take the conventional index of power-military might.
Yes, Moscow is testing advanced missiles systems and talks buoyantly
about countering a U.S. antiballistic-missile system with a
new generation of warheads that can evade interceptors. Yet
note the failure earlier this month of the highly touted Bulava
submarine-launched missile. The United States experiences such mishaps,
too, of course. But in Russia they are signs of something deeper. It’s
no secret that, for all Russia’s new oil wealth, its Army remains
poorly trained, malnourished and demoralized.
Alcoholism, suicide and corruption are rife. Weaponry is aging and
newer models arrive at a trickle: India has bought more Russian tanks
since 2001 than the Russian Army.
Russia gets credit for economic growth-nearly 7 percent this year,
according to the IMF. But the boom has been propelled mainly by rising
energy prices.
What happens when-not if-oil and gas prices begin to retreat? New
investment in production capacity is insufficient to sustain current
levels of exports.
Meanwhile, economic reform has stalled, state control over strategic
economic industries has increased and foreign investment remains
low. Of the 8.1 billion in foreign investment worldwide in 2004, only
.6 billion went to Russia. Not surprisingly, Russia rates poorly in
globalization rankings. The 2005 Foreign Policy/A.T. Kearney survey
placed it 52nd in a list of 62 countries-a drop of five places
from 2004.
Russia’s human capital is being ravaged. The population is declining
by some 750,000 annually because of low birthrates and unusually high
death rates among males; it’s also aging rapidly and will therefore
become increasingly less productive.
Alcoholism remains pervasive, as does drug use. Russia has the highest
rate of tuberculosis in Europe. AIDS has yet to crest. Suicide is
one the rise. According to WHO data on 46 countries between 1998
and 2003, Russia, with 71 cases per 100,000 of the male population,
topped the list.
A nation’s power also rests on the strength of its institutions. Here,
too, Russia is growing weaker.
Putin’s authoritarianism has brought order to a once chaotic political
scene. But Parliament has been neutered. So have independent civic
organizations, political parties and media. The secret police,
military and security services-no friends of the rule of law-occupy
prominent political positions. Official corruption flourishes.
Abroad, Russia’s influence continues to ebb. Its closest
allies-Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan-are poor and politically
unstable.
Energy-rich Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan resent Russia’s grip on
their exports. Armenia, loyal but penurious, remains embroiled in the
Nagorno-Karabakh conflict with increasingly prosperous Azerbaijan. The
Kremlin’s meddling in Georgia has deepened Tblisi’s determination
to join NATO and strengthened anti-Russian sentiment. Belarus’s
dictatorial president envisions union with Russia, but his Soviet-style
political order repels many ordinary Russians.
On the wider global stage, Putin displays seeming strength and new
confidence. Russian support is key to the negotiations over Iran’s
nuclear program. Its Security Council veto gives it an important say
on various international issues, from Kosovo’s independence to the
United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon. Yet Putin’s rhetoric
increasingly strikes themes of Great Russia-imperial, nostalgic,
nationalistic. However much it resonates with a particular Russian
political class, that rhetoric can itself breed weakness.
You see this in the sharp rise of race-related hate crimes in Russia,
most recently the clash between Russian xenophobes and Chechens
in the north- western town of Kondopga, when a bar brawl triggered
huge rallies of ultranationalists demanding the expulsion of ethnic
minorities. Right-wing racism and Russia-for-Russians chauvinism augur
ill for a multiethnic, multiconfessional Russia, which has near 25
million Muslims.

RUSSIA SAYS 2006 PLAN ON GEORGIA PULLOUT ALMOST COMPLETE
RIA Novosti, Russia
19:16 | 18/ 09/ 2006
TBILISI, September 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s military said Monday
its plans for 2006 on withdrawing military hardware from bases in
Georgia will be completed Tuesday.
Under an agreement Russia and Georgia signed March 31, Russian troops
and hardware are to leave two Soviet-era bases in the southern city of
Akhalkalaki and Batumi in the west of Georgia by 2008. The withdrawal
is being monitored by a joint Georgian-Russian commission set up
under the March agreement.
“The 2006 plan for the withdrawal of Russian bases from Georgia can
be considered 100% implemented,” said Major General Andrei Popov,
commander of Russian troops in South Caucasus. “All the equipment
taken out from Georgia has been delivered to military units in Russia
and Armenia, and the last train loaded with equipment will leave the
Tsalka railroad station on September 19.”
Popov said after September 19, the 62nd base in Akhalkalaki, which
the Tsalka station services, will house only vehicles needed for the
base’s functioning until late 2007.
He gave credit to the authorities of Azerbaijan, whose relations with
neighboring Armenia have been tense since the collapse of the Soviet
Union, for allowing the transit of military cargo through the country.
“The withdrawal procedure was simplified after Azerbaijan allowed
transit through its territory, and we have worked in close contact
with the country’s railroad workers, border guards and the military.”
He said there had been no delays in or obstacles to the plan’s
implementation.
But he said it was only the first stage of the withdrawal, which will
continue until 2008. “I hope such issues as food support, movement of
vehicles about Georgia and mail deliveries will be solved as quickly
as issues related to the withdrawal.”
Popov said shipments of military equipment in 2007 would be similar
to this year’s. “A total of 400 cars with equipment have been sent to
Russia through Azerbaijan in 2006, and shipments will be approximately
the same in 2007.”
He said military hardware was to be withdrawn from the military base in
Batumi in 2007, and the base in Akhalkalaki must be closed by December
1, 2007. The staff of the 62nd base in Akhalkalaki would be transferred
to the 12th base in Batumi. “Georgia prohibits the deployment of new
servicemen, and the base in Batumi is 30% undermanned, which is why
we made the decision,” Popov said.
He said the situation in Batumi would be completely different from
that in Akhalkalaki because Georgian police had toughened requirements
for the movement of military vehicles.
“Batumi is a resort, and we hope issues on and the deadline for the
pullout from the Batumi base will be coordinated with the Georgian
side in advance in order to avoid incidents during the tourist season,
which usually starts in July,” Popov said.
The Russian government has earmarked 2.167 billion rubles ($81 million)
for the pullout from the bases.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

AZERBAIJAN NOT DITCHING MINSK GROUP FORMAT IN KARABAKH TALKS – OFFICIAL
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
September 18, 2006 Monday 3:04 PM MSK
Azerbaijan has no plans to abandon the format of the OSCE Minsk
group in talks on the settlement in Nagorno Karabakh, Tair Tagizade,
head of the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry’s information department,
has told Interfax.
“It remains a priority for us,” he said commenting on a statement by
Armenian Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanian alleging that Azerbaijan
was withdrawing from negotiations in the OSCE framework and taking
it to the U.N. by having the issue of frozen conflicts in the former
Soviet Union included in the agenda of the current U.N. General
Assembly session.
“The process is not being withdrawn from the framework of OSCE because
Azerbaijan is not rejecting the format of the Minsk group,” he said.
He added that Armenian authorities were evading talks with Azerbaijan
on the settlement of the conflict.
Earlier Oskanian said he had no plans for a bilateral meeting with
his Azerbaijani colleague. He said the ministers were likely to have
more separate meetings with Minsk group cochairmen.
“The reluctance to meet as a rule is the last argument of someone
who has no arguments left,” Tagizade said.

TWO SUSPECTS IN SAMARA BRAWL PUT ON WANTED LIST
Nizhny Novgorod
Interfax News Agency
Russia & CIS General Newswire
September 17, 2006 Sunday 9:15 PM MSK
Two persons suspected of involvement in a fight between ethnic
Armenians and ethnic Russians in Volsk, the Saratov region, have been
placed on the federal wanted list.
They are Garnik Unanian, born in 1967, and Artur Mkhoian, born in 1981,
the local prosecutor’s office said in a press release.
“People from the Caucasus and visitors of Slavic appearance began
swearing at each other outside the Galaktika cafe on Komsomolskaya
Street in the town of Volsk at around 2:00 p.m. on September 10. The
men did not like each other and were drunk,” the release says.
“The quarrel erupted into a fight,” during which one of the men
sustained three lethal knife wounds, it says. Another three men of
Slavic appearance sought medical assistance later, it says.
“At the moment there are no grounds to assume that it was a hate
crime,” the release says.
Two people were killed and another six injured in a mass brawl that
broke out between local residents and natives of the Caucasus at a
restaurant in Kondopoga, Karelia, early on August 30. One person was
killed in a shootout at a Samara market on September 13.

NAGORNO-KARABAKH: UNCERTAINTY FACES BAPTIST CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR
By Felix Corley, Forum 18 News Service
Forum 18, Norway
18 September 2006
It is unclear whether the authorities will take further action
against a young Baptist conscript who refuses to swear the military
oath and bear arms on grounds of conscience, Forum 18 News Service
has found. Gagik Mirzoyan was freed from prison at the end of a
jail sentence, held by the Military Police and, after eight days,
transferred to a military unit.
“They are still pressuring him to swear the military oath and take
up weapons,” Baptist pastor Garnik Abreyan told Forum 18. “He still
has three months to serve of his military service and we just don’t
know what they will do with him.” Albert Voskanyan, of the Centre
for Civilian Initiatives – who has regularly visited both Gagik
Mirzoyan and jailed Jehovah’s Witness conscientious objector Areg
Hovhanesyan – told Forum 18 that “the danger is real that Mirzoyan
could be imprisoned again.” Deputy Foreign Minister Masis Mailyan
told Forum 18 that he does not know what the military will now do.
Baptists in the unrecognised republic of Nagorno-Karabakh in the
South Caucasus are still unsure whether the authorities will take
further action against a young Baptist conscript who refuses to swear
the military oath and bear arms. Freed from prison in Shusha on 5
September, at the end of his sentence for refusing to perform military
duties, 20-year-old Gagik Mirzoyan was held by the Military Police and,
after eight days, transferred to a military unit. “No-one is doing
anything bad to him in the unit, but they are still pressuring him to
swear the military oath and take up weapons,” Baptist pastor Garnik
Abreyan told Forum 18 News Service on 17 September from Stepanakert,
the disputed enclave’s capital. “He still has three months to serve
of his military service and we just don’t know what they will do
with him.”
Mirzoyan, who is from Karabakh’s Mardakert district, is a member of
a local congregation of the Council of Churches Baptists, who refuse
on principle to register congregations with the state authorities
in post-Soviet countries. He was called up in December 2004 and
immediately refused to swear the military oath and carry weapons. After
initially allowing him to serve without weapons and without swearing
the military oath, the military authorities then changed their minds.
At the district court of Hadrut in south-eastern Karabakh in July 2005,
Mirzoyan was found guilty under Article 364 part 1 of the Criminal
Code, which punishes “refusal to perform one’s military duties” with
detention of up to 3 months, service in a punishment battalion of up
to 2 years or imprisonment of up to 2 years. Mirzoyan was sentenced
to two years’ imprisonment, but this was suspended and he was then
sent back to his military unit. However, in September 2005 Hadrut
district court converted this into a one-year term of imprisonment
at the urging of military leaders. He was beaten several times while
in the hands of the army and while in prison (see F18News 22 March
2006 ) .
Nagorno-Karabakh has adopted Armenia’s Criminal Code, which also
punishes conscientious objection – see eg.
F18News 23 February 2006
=733.
Despite having served his full jail sentence for refusing to perform
military duties, Gagik Mirzoyan’s two-year term of compulsory military
service is not due to be completed until December of this year.
An official at the Defence Ministry, who declined to give his name,
told Forum 18 from Stepanakert on 18 September that he was not familiar
with Mirzoyan’s case and was not prepared to discuss it. He referred
all enquiries to the Foreign Ministry, although it has no jurisdiction
over what happens in the Karabakh armed forces.
Deputy Foreign Minister Masis Mailyan told Forum 18 on 18 September
that he has been following Mirzoyan’s case and described his release
from prison as “good news” – even though the release was at the end
of the young Baptist’s full jail sentence. Mailyan said that after
having spoken to the Defence Ministry about Mirzoyan’s case he thought
there was “no urge to punish him again”. But he does not know what
the military will now do, as Mirzoyan still refuses to swear the
military oath.
Mailyan insisted that Karabakh needs to be able to defend itself
because of the unresolved conflict with Azerbaijan, but said he
believes young men who cannot serve in the armed forces on grounds
of conscience should be offered alternative, non-military service.
“We strive to meet European standards, and I’m personally in favour
of introducing an alternative service,” he told Forum 18. However,
he noted that no concrete draft law on alternative service has yet
reached the local parliament.
Pastor Abreyan told Forum 18 that he and fellow Baptists had been able
to meet Mirzoyan on 16 September, at his unit in Nagorno-Karabakh’s
south-eastern Martuni district. “Gagik is being well treated at the
moment, can move freely around the base and has not been made to wear
a uniform,” Abreyan reported.
Also imprisoned in Shusha Prison, just south of Stepanakert, for
refusing military service on grounds of religious conscience is a
Jehovah’s Witness from Stepanakert, Areg Hovhanesyan. He was sentenced
in February 2005 to four years’ imprisonment for refusing military
service on grounds of religious conscience (see F18News 22 February
2005 ) .
Concerned over both Mirzoyan and Hovhanesyan is Albert Voskanyan, head
of the Centre for Civilian Initiatives, a local human rights group,
who has regularly visited both in Shusha Prison. “The danger is real
that Mirzoyan could be imprisoned again,” Voskanyan told Forum 18 on
15 September.
Voskanyan had written on 21 August to the president of the unrecognised
republic, Arkady Gukasyan, explaining that Mirzoyan had rejected
the military oath because of his belief as a Baptist that the Bible
forbids the swearing of oaths and had expressed his willingness to
serve in the armed forces without swearing the oath.
“The following, complex situation has emerged, almost an impasse,”
Voskanyan told Gukasyan. “The sentenced man, having served the
punishment given to him, will again be called up to military service,
will again refuse to swear the oath although he is ready to serve the
remainder of the term he is due to serve, and will again be sentenced,
this time as a recidivist.”
Voskanyan called on Gukasyan to have Mirzoyan treated “leniently”.
Pastor Abreyan told Forum 18 that Mirzoyan is the only Baptist in
Nagorno-Karabakh facing such problems. He also reported that Baptist
congregations are not obstructed in meeting for worship. “No-one is
restricting us – we can hold meetings, pray and worship.”
A printer-friendly map of the disputed
enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh is available at
las/index.html?Parent=asia&Rootmap=azerba
with in the map titled ‘Azerbaijan’.

POLITICAL ANALYST VAFA GULUZADEH: INTRODUCTION OF NAGORNO-KARABAKH ISSUE TO UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY A GOOD ONSET
Author: S. Ilhamgizi
Trend
Today 19.09.2006
The introduction of the discussions on the lingering conflicts on the
territory of GUAM member-states to the agenda of UN General Assembly
is a good onset for Azerbaijan, political analyst and former state
official Vafa Guluzadeh told Trend today.
Notably, on August 10, 2006, the representatives of GUAM member-states
(Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and Moldova) to UN appealed to UN
General Assembly with a proposal to include the issue “Lingering
Conflicts on the Territories of GUAM Member-States” to the agenda of
61th Session of the Organization. On September 13, during the sitting
of UN General Assembly, a decision to include the issue to the agenda
Mr. Guluzadeh pointed out that the discussions held in UN General
Assembly are a good onset to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
internationally. But at the same time, in the political analst`s
opinion, its is too early to expect any quick results on this issue.
“I think that the conflict will last for a long time.
However, I perfectly appreciate the repeated introduction of this
issue to UN consideration, and think that it is a consolation for
Azerbaijan at the same time, since both Russia and Armenia have
already gone into mourning because of it”, he told.
According to the political analyst, the mediation of OSCE Minsk
Group in the negotiations as the Armenia wants has not brought any
results yet.

TRANSDNESTR VOTERS BACK UNION WITH RUSSIA
By Nabi Abdullaev – Staff Writer
Gleb Garanich / Reuters
The Moscow Times
Tuesday, September 19, 2006. Issue 3500. Page 1.
Election official Pyotr Denisenko announcing the referendum results
Sunday.
The vast majority of voters in Moldova’s separatist province of
Transdnestr on Sunday backed independence and eventual unification
with Russia.
More than 97 percent of registered voters supported independence,
according to Transdnestr officials.
About 300,000 voters, or nearly 79 percent of those who are registered,
showed up at the polls.
Only Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia, which held its own
independence vote in 1999, has recognized the referendum.
Still, the vote was a victory for the Kremlin as it seeks to expand
its influence in the former Soviet republics.
“The referendum demonstrated that our society is united in its desire
to become part of Russia,” said Svetlana Antonova, Transdnestr’s
deputy information minister. Antonova spoke by telephone from the
province’s capital of Tiraspol.
Officials in the Moldovan capital of Chisinau and at the European
Union dismissed the referendum. But Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
praised it, calling the vote “democratic and open.”
Lavrov noted that hundreds of monitors from former Soviet republics
and Europe observed the referendum.
“They could watch the people’s will,” he said.
But Lavrov’s ministry was reluctant to go too far, refraining from
officially acknowledging the controversial vote and commenting on
its results.
Russia earlier pledged to respect Moldova’s territorial integrity.
In Chisinau, meanwhile, Natalya Vishanu, a spokeswoman for Moldovan
President Vladimir Voronin, said in an interview: “We don’t consider
it a referendum, and we don’t accept its outcome.”
The Moldovan government issued a statement Monday saying the referendum
sought to “torpedo” Moldovan unification talks and called on other
countries not to acknowledge the vote.
The European Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, the continent’s premier human-rights groups, and the EU
also refused to recognize the referendum.
None of this appears to be deterring Transdnestr leaders from taking
steps to integrate with Russia.
Transdnestr leader Igor Smirnov said Monday that the province’s
authorities would begin changing the legal code to make it conform
to Russian legislation. He said government bureaucracies would be
reconfigured in the image of Russian ministries and state agencies.
Transdnestr also wants the Russian ruble be the province’s only
official currency, Smirnov said.
The entire integration process is expected to take from five to seven
years, said Valery Litskai, the province’s foreign minister.
“If anyone thinks that Russia is going to acknowledge the referendum,
and that tomorrow everyone in Transdnestr will be granted Russian
citizenship, and Transdnestr will become an integral part of Russia,
I’d have to say this isn’t going to happen,” Litskai said, Interfax
reported.
Transdnestr seceded from Moldova in 1990, as the Soviet Union was still
in the midst of collapsing. A short but bitter war ensued in 1992,
with hundreds killed on both sides. Transdnestr’s population is roughly
equally divided between ethnic Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians.
Like the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, bordered by Poland, Lithuania
and the Baltic Sea, Transdnestr, which is surrounded by Moldova and
Ukraine, would stand apart from the rest of Russia were it to become
part of the country.
Sunday’s vote strengthens Russia’s hand insofar as other unrecognized
states in the former Soviet Union are concerned, officials and
analysts from Russia and Transdnestr said. All those unrecognized
states, most of which are in the Caucasus, are Russia-leaning.
While Western governments have backed independence for Kosovo and
Montenegro, they have refused to recognize similar bids in Transdnestr;
Abkhazia and South Ossetia, in Georgia; and the Nagorno-Karabakh
republic, claimed by Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Sergei Markov, a Kremlin-connected political analyst, said the Kremlin
would seek to leverage Western support for Kosovo’s independence into
Russian recognition of Transdnestr and South Ossetia.
Antonova, the Transdnestr deputy information minister, acknowledged
the referendum’s timing was meant to help Russia.
In recent years, Moldova, Georgia and Azerbaijan have been drifting
out of Moscow’s orbit as they seek closer ties with the West.
“The results of the referendum were predictable, and although they
will not have any real legal consequences related to joining Russia,
nevertheless, this is a signal to the international community that
cannot be ignored,” said Vadim Gustov, head of the Federation Council’s
Committee for CIS Affairs, Interfax reported.
Gustov’s colleagues in the Federation Council and the State Duma voiced
similar views. Duma Deputies Sergei Baburin and Viktor Alksnis went
so far as to propose that Russian authorities establish an official
process for eventually recognizing Transdnestr’s independence.
The bloc of former Soviet republics known as GUAM — Georgia, Ukraine,
Azerbaijan and Moldova — last week managed to insert an item on the
United Nations General Assembly agenda dealing with the so-called
frozen conflicts in Georgia, Moldova and Nagorno-Karabakh.
The Georgian diplomats who spearheaded the move called it a sign of
GUAM’s successful foreign policy, while Lavrov downplayed the inclusion
of the frozen conflicts on the General Assembly’s agenda. Lavrov
noted that 16 member-states voted for inclusion, 15 were against it,
and 65 abstained.
The General Assembly’s 61st session began last week and will run
until mid-September 2007. It was not immediately clear when the frozen
conflicts item would be dealt with by the General Assembly.

ONE YEAR SINCE BUNDESTAG ADOPTS RESOLUTION ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Anahit Hovsepian
AZG Armenian Daily
19/09/2006
Today, September 19 at 7.00 pm, German companies invite to a dispute
titled “The reality of Memory” at the representative office of
Saxony-Anhalt in Berlin.
This discussion from the series of “Berlin Lectures” has an aim to
have retrospective look at the events in Germany after the historic
decision of Bundestag on June 16 2005.
Elvira Reit, chairman of German-Armenian Association, will deliver a
greeting speech, and writer, publicist Raffi Kandian will make a short
speech and will monitor the discussion. Among other participants will
be Bundestag deputies Dr. Christoph Bergner and Dr.
Markus Meckel, as well as Prof. Herman Goltz head of Johannes Lepsius’s
archives in Potsdam, Mari Karachiyan-Berndt and lawyer Stepan Taschian
from the Armenian community.

YEAR OF ARMENIA IN ILE-DE-FRANCE STARTS WITH CONCERT
By Petros Keshishian
AZG Armenian Daily
19/09/2006
Historic district of Ile-de-France that includes Paris and its
surroundings each year holds a festival with 3 dozens of various
concert programs. This year’s topic of the festival is the Silk
Road. It enables the French to discover cultures of a number of
counties.
One of the participants of the Ile-de-France festival is Armenia
through territory of which part of the Silk Road used to pass. Within
the framework of the Year of Armenia in France concerts of Armenian
music will be staged in different parts of Ile-de-France.
Organizers of the festival say that one of the concerts will be held
at a concert hall in Meudon on September 30. Inspired by Biblical
Ararat, Armenian musicians will perform ashugh and gusan songs,
folk melodies of holidays, spiritual music and epic songs.
In the second part orchestra of Arc de Seine conservatoire conducted
by Alexander Siranosian.
Earlier, on September 24 and 26, singer Anna Mailian will present
Armenian folk music to residents of one of Paris’s southern suburbs. In
two concerts she will acquaint the listeners with the monodia of
Armenian art of singing and the polyphony of spiritual music.

CRU WILL REMAIN EITHER WITHOUT KHACHATRYAN OR WITHOUT BABOUKHANYAN
A1+
[07:09 pm] 18 September, 2006
The situation created in Constitutional Right Union was not cleared
even after the conference. Moreover, although the conference
reconfirmed Hrant Khachatryan in the post of the president of the
party, and Hayk Baboukhanyan in the post of the vice president,
the passions have not cooled down, and today Hrant Khachatryan made
an ultimatum.
“In order to heal the party Hayk Baboukhanyan has to resign from
the post of the vice president of the party for three months”, Hrant
Khachatryan told a news conference rendered today. Let us remind you
that according to the results of the Saturday voting Hrant Khachatryan
was elected president of the party with 184 votes. Hayk Baboukhanyan
was elected vice president with 203 votes; on the day of the elections
he withdrew his candidacy for the post of the president.
We asked Hrant Khachatryan is he is convinced that Hayk Baboukhanyan
would not gather more votes if he did not withdraw his candidacy. He
answered that it was the plan of the overturn – that he would remain
president, and Baboukhanyan would remain vice president.
According to Hrant Khachatryan, the party is facing the danger
of losing its independence and the only way out is to bring Hayk
Baboukhanyan back from the wrong path. And the “wrong path” is the
financial abuse of about 1.6 million AMD, and “the debt of 3 or 6
million AMD” where Hrant Khachatryan sees no criminality.
Hrant Khachatryan informed that if Hayk Baboukhanyan does not resign
until Wednesday, he will leave the political field and will take the
name “Constitutional Right Union” with him.
By the way, Hayk Baboukhanyan informed that he is not going to resign
as he was elected by the conference in order to regulate the activity
of the party.
According to Khachatryan, newspaper “Iravounq” will continue
its activity despite anything, and Baboukhanyan will remain its
editor-in-chief.