NA DEPUTY ARTAK SARGSIAN EXPLUDED FROM PARTY ON DECISION OF ORINTAS
ERKIR PARTY POLITICAL BOARD

YEREVAN, APRIL 14, NOYAN TAPAN. At the April 13 special sitting of the
political board of the Orinats Erkir party, a unanimous decision was
made to exlude Artak Sargsian, member of the party’s NA faction, owner
of the SAS supermarket newtork, from the party membership. The reason
was that despite the decision of the party and its faction, the deputy
voted “for” during voting on the report on implementation of the
2001-2003 state property implementation program in the National
Assembly. Mher Shahgeldian, Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on
Defence, National Security and Internal Affairs, Vice Chairman of the
Orinats Erkir Party, stated this at the April 14 briefing of the
faction.

According to him, NA Speaker and leader of the Orinats Erkir Party
Artur Baghdasarian sent the material containing facts about violations
committed during the privatization process to the Office of the RA
Prosecutor General. As for “abstentions” of 7 members of the faction
during voting on the report, M. Shahgeldian did not see anything
unusual in it and noted that “against” and “abstention” votes were in
accordance with the political decision of the party.

It is noteworthy that despite the exclusion from the party membership,
under the NA by-law, a faction can terminate a deputy’s membership
only based on her/his own application. Secretary of the Justice
faction Victor Dallakian considered the three-day discussion and
voting of the report in the parliament as “spring aggravations or a
discrediting war within the coalition”. In his words, the opposition
gave its political assessment of the “shameful privatization”. As
regards the authorities, they are “steeped in corruption, therefore
they cannot fight against themselves.” In connection with the fact of
a not united vote of the Orinats Erkir faction, the deputy expressed
an opinion that “there is a problem of thinking over and expressing an
opinion about this force”. He did not rule out that “those wings of
power that influence the members of this faction” are the ones who
have dictated this situation. Leader of the Republican Party of
Armenian faction Galust Sahakian delined to comment on internal
problems of Orinats Erkir – its parner in the coaltion, noting that
A. Sargsian’s expulsion from the party was not a “sensation” to him.
According to him, the discussions of the report in the parliament
“resulted in the fact that in any case the coalition has no internal
problems”, as the coalition deputies did not make a call for voting
“against”, they just expressed their own position.