ARMENIA’S SPEAKER HOPES FOR DIALOGUE WITH OPPOSITION BY LATE SUMMER

Aravot, Yerevan
14 Jul 04

Armenian parliament chairman Artur Bagdasaryan has said the
authorities should resume dialogue with the opposition by the end of
the summer. He said that every effort would be made to persuade the
opposition deputies to end their boycott of parliament. Asked about
problems in the governing coalition, Bagdasaryan said that a split
could not be ruled out, although there were no serious disagreements
at present. The following is the text of Margarit Yesayan’s report in
Armenian newspaper Aravot on 14 July headlined “Coalition split not
ruled out”; subheadings inserted editorially:

An interview with the chairman of the National Assembly, Artur
Bagdasaryan.

Dialogue with opposition

(Aravot correspondent) How do you assess the domestic political
situation in Armenia? Do you think the current stage of relations
between the opposition and authorities is normal?

(Artur Bagdasaryan) I think that the domestic political situation is
calm. We shall restart dialogue with the opposition by the end of the
summer. There have already been conversations with several opposition
figures. We should work together to try to ensure that all 131
deputies play a full part in the National Assembly’s legislative work
from September. Of course, there will be people who will not want to
return to this work, but we shall try do everything possible for their
return. The policy of declaring war is unacceptable. We should find
mutually acceptable solutions. Even world wars end by means of
dialogue. The conflict between the opposition and authorities should
also end by means of dialogue. I should say that the people are not
inspired by this boycott. During my travels in the regions people
demand that all the deputies of the National Assembly should work. The
leaders of the opposition should accept and understand that parliament
is a place for making laws and they can greatly help this structure to
work properly. I want to ask them, would an election code adopted
without the opposition really be better than one passed with its
involvement? I am someone who is sure that the participation of the
opposition in legislative work will promote the passing of better
laws.

(Correspondent) There are rumours that by the end of August or at the
beginning of September radical changes will take place in the
government. Do you think it possible?

(Bagdasaryan) We should accept the reality that nobody will remain in
his post forever and staff changes are always possible, stemming from
the situation in one sphere or another. Such rumours are often
artificial, they are directed against individual officials and I do
not think it is right.

OSCE criticism does not mean end of European integration

(Correspondent) The president of the republic backed the statement of
other CIS presidents on the activity of the OSCE, which was assessed
as a demarche against Europe. As for you, you say everywhere that all
roads lead to Europe. What has brought about this contradiction?

(Bagdasaryan) There is no contradiction. Armenia has adopted the path
of European integration. Certainly there are numerous obstacles and
difficulties on this path. And we should overcome this. As for the
statement you mentioned, the point is not about Armenia’s cooperation
with the OSCE. The point is about some disagreements on some
problems. Naturally, every country should submit its own viewpoint,
because we are a nation, we have statehood, we are an independent
state and we should be able to express our positions strictly on
existing problems.

(Correspondent) The president’s audit service is going to supervise
the entrance exams to higher education institutions, as it did the
final exams for top students. Is the Audit Chamber of the National
Assembly not going to come forward with the same initiative?

(Bagdasaryan) The Law-Governed Country Party (Orinats Yerkir) will do
everything possible to end the “entrance exam” concept in Armenia. We
need just a year to achieve this. We have said and continue to say
that we need to get rid of the state order system in our higher
education institutions. Only clever children should study for free and
not the children of rich or influential people. The fuss surrounding
entrance exams is the result of two factors – the state order and
military service. In September-October we shall adopt a law “On
university and post-university education” which will get rid of the
state order concept.

Coalition split cannot be ruled out

(Correspondent) Is it possible that some problems will merge and cause
a split in the coalition?

(Bagdasaryan) The rumours about a coalition split are exaggerated, but
it cannot be ruled out, if there are strict disagreements of principle
for the parties. Nobody is stuck to his post. At present there are no
serious disagreements. There are serious problems, serious
displeasure, but all of them may be overcome and today we have been
able to overcome them by means of discussions.