Armenian speaker urges more powers to parliament, rejects opposition charges

Arminfo,
23 Apr 04

YEREVAN

The fact that during the 12 April opposition rally police deployed its
units in the building of the National Assembly and also surrounded it
by barbed wire showed that someone aimed at making “the opposition
direct its anger” at the speaker of parliament. This was announced by
Armenian Speaker Artur Bagdasaryan at a news conference today.

He said that the subtext of the action was political and was a result
of his statement at a recent press conference denouncing the arrests
on political grounds in the republic. “Despite that I will stick to my
earlier remarks,” he said.

He said that power wielding posts should be political. The speaker
told the news conference several times that the Armenian parliament
and its chairman have limited powers. They have no levers to control
the law-enforcement agencies. There is no political control over the
latter. Therefore, he said the National Assembly should be given more
powers.

Commenting on accusations made by the opposition that he had turned
the parliament building into barracks by allowing the deployment of
the police units who dispersed the opposition rally on 12 April ,
Bagdasaryan gave an emotionally charged reply: “The speaker has no
control over police units which ensure the security of the National
Assembly.”

[Passage omitted: reiterates the point]