Armenia chose lesser of two evils in agreeing to send troops to Iraq – MP

Noyan Tapan news agency
27 Dec 04

YEREVAN

Agasi Arshakyan, a member of the National Unity faction in the
National Assembly, voted for Armenia’s participation in the
anti-terrorist activities in Iraq during the parliament’s closed
sitting on 24 December, choosing the lesser of two evils.

He told reporters about this at the Union of Constitutional Law’s
Azdak club on 25 December, saying that he reconsidered his previous
position on this issue for three days. Arshakyan said that “a fight
against the terrorist state No 1” would have been the greater evil for
Armenia.

Arshakyan pointed to two statements Artashes Gegamyan, the leader of
the National Unity Party, made at that parliament sitting. Both
statements spoke about the motives for sending Armenians to Iraq from
the point of view of national security and they helped Arshakyan adopt
“the right position” on this issue.

Arshakyan believes that there was no third choice on the issue. One
had to choose between the bad and the worse. The MP said the Armenian
government, government officials, the parliament coalition and the
policy of complementarity pursued by the state are to blame for the
“limbo”. He said that those who are aware of Armenia’s “illegitimate
government” now are pressurizing Armenia into making this kind of
difficult decision.

The MP said that Defence Minister Serzh Sarkisyan had been doing his
utmost since July to delay this process. He said Sarkisyan and also
President Robert Kocharyan would have been happy if parliament had
voted against sending troops to Iraq.

Arshakyan also said that the National Unity faction, whose negative
position had been published in the press three days before, could have
missed the parliament sitting and chosen the easy way. However, it
chose “the tough, but honourable way” by voting “for” sending
Armenians to Iraq.

Arshakyan expressed the hope that Armenia “will emerge from this test
with light casualties”.