BAGHDASARIAN DEMANDS STATE FUNDING FOR SAVINGS COMPENSATION
By Astghik Bedevian

Armenialiberty.org, Armenia
Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Oct 4 2005

Parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian demanded on Tuesday that the
Armenian government begin compensating the population for the dramatic
depreciation of its Soviet-era bank deposits, a major theme of his
socioeconomic discourse dismissed as populist by his foes.

Baghdasarian warned his coalition partners against scuttling the
passage of a controversial bill that suggests a partial solution
to the problem. He said agreement on enacting the bill was reached
by his Orinats Yerkir Party, Prime Minister Andranik Markarian’s
Republican Party (HHK) and the third coalition partner, the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) at a meeting with President
Robert Kocharian last week.

“I hope that the political agreement will be honored by the Republican
Party and other political forces that joined this initiative,” he
told reporters, alluding to the HHK’s long-running opposition to the
proposed compensation.

The bill in question, which was blocked by Markarian’s cabinet last
year, was unexpectedly included on the Armenian parliament’s agenda
on Monday. It calls for $83 million in public funds to be paid to
the former deposit holders within the next ten years.

Leaders of the National Assembly’s largest faction controlled by
the HHK continue to believe that the proposed sum is too modest to
address the problem and would lead to a waste of scarce government
resources. They indicated that they will block debate on the Orinats
Yerkir bill, arguing that the government’s draft budget for next year
does not earmark anything for the savings compensation.

“The budget must certainly include a relevant provision,” insisted
Baghdasarian. “Armenia will have a $1 billion budget next year. This
means the ongoing economic growth is allowing us to gradually address
socioeconomic problems. If the fight against corruption becomes more
effective, there will be even more funds at our disposal.”

Orinats Yerkir is represented in the government with three ministers.

None of them is known to have opposed the draft budget approved by
the executive last week.