Armenian opposition parties differ on ways of combatting corruption

Haykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
10 Jul 04 p 3

Text of Naira Zograbyan report by Armenian newspaper Haykakan Zhamanak
on 10 July headlined “Don’t we need new targets?”

A conflict is brewing up within the opposition. The Justice bloc and
the National Unity Party agree that they need to revise their
strategy, but each of them has its own view on ways of doing it. The
Justice bloc, which includes the Republic Party and the People’s Party
of Armenia, says that they should no longer focus on [Armenian
President Robert] Kocharyan and [Defence Minister Serzh] Sarkisyan and
should start publicizing instances of corruption by ministers, MPs and
top officials.

Both Aram Sarkisyan and Stepan Demirchyan say that from now on, they
will disclose specific case of corruption that pervades the whole
current government. They will no longer say that “everyone is
corrupt”, but will name specific names. The National Unity Party
immediately protests, saying that if Justice really wants to revise
its strategy in such a way, they will be “sidelined”. They say that if
they divert their attention from Kocharyan and Sarkisyan, this will
give them an advantage and make it easier for them to retain power
until 2008. “The state is de jure ruled by Robert Kocharyan, but de
facto, he rules it together with Serzh Sarkisyan. All ministers and
top officials are following their orders and if the opposition aims at
them, this will be like placing responsibility for a military
operation on a soldier rather than on a commander. Kocharyan and
Sarkisyan would very much like the opposition’s blows to hit the
premier, the parliament speaker, other top officials – for they are
ready to make anybody a scapegoat in order to retain their
throne. Having a dinner, gambling or hunting together is not a
criteria for them. If need be, they will sacrifice all their
supporters just to keep their seats. And if the opposition does them
such a favour, speaking about ministers and MPs during its rallies,
Kocharyan and Sarkisyan will be deeply grateful to them. Moreover,
they will start providing the opposition with compromising information
about their partners, pretending that they are fighting for justice,
but in fact, attempting to distract public attention from
themselves. If the opposition does such a thing, this will be an order
from the state. National Unity will not take the bait and take part in
such intrigues,” says the vice-president of the party, Aleksan
Karapetyan.

Moreover, National Unity believes that by targeting top officials, the
opposition will provide Kocharyan and Sarkisyan with a strong group of
kamikazes and political prisoners. “Sensing a threat, these people
will cling to Kocharyan and become his kamikazes.” So National Unity
hopes that their colleagues will not be so naive to fall into the
government’s trap.

Meanwhile, Justice does not share National Unity’s concern. “There are
no primary or secondary targets. We are dealing with a criminal
administration and Justice will address each case of corruption
irrespective of who is involved in it,” says the Justice press
secretary, Ruzan Khachatryan.