ARMENIAN PAPER SAYS DM AND SPEAKER FIGHT FOR KOCHARYAN’S JOB

Haykakan Zhamanak, Armenia
Oct 6 2005

“The problem of successor”

The issue of Robert Kocharyan’s successor is becoming more and more
urgent in view of the fact that after 2008 he may decide not to run
for president. Kocharyan’s interest in constitutional reforms shows
that he would like to keep his job.

Through the constitutional reforms he will be able to ignore all the
previous presidential terms and to start from scratch. The adoption of
these changes will make him a sacred figure and he may simply decide
to transfer the power to somebody else.

The chairman of the National Assembly, Artur Bagdasaryan, and Defence
Minister Serzh Sarkisyan have started fighting for the position of
Kocharyan’s successor. Everything depends on the situation and it is
not ruled out that somebody else will become his successor.

[Passage omitted: the details how Russian president Putin became a
president are presented].

But one thing is obvious that in the political developments the problem
of the successor is becoming more and more noticeable and this process
may only be stopped by a strong opposition that will be able to capture
power. And as this has not taken place yet, the fight for power will
first of all take place within the authorities. Such process will
take place within the opposition as well and each opposition leader
will try to gather all the opposition activists around himself and
to become the only leader.

At present Artashes Gegamyan made a claim for this and he is hoping to
become the leader of the opposition. [Passage omitted: speculation on
Gegamyan’s plans]. By the way, Gegamyan has been widely cooperating
with certain forces in this matter. He can help these forces to gain
victory over Serzh Sarkisyan as long as they agreed to one proviso that
they in turn will support him in his fight against Stepan Demirchyan’s
and other opposition leaders.

Thus the opposition as well has its role in the matter of choosing
Kocharyan’s successor.