ARMENIAN SPEAKER SUBMITS RESIGNATION, MP SAYS

Mediamax news agency, Yerevan
11 May 06

Yerevan, 11 May: The speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia,
Artur Bagdasaryan, has decided to resign, and his party Orinats Yerkir
(Law-Governed Country Party) will quit the ruling coalition.

Ovannes Markaryan, a member of the Orinats Yerkir parliamentary
faction, said this in a live appearance on Yerevan’s Shant TV channel,
Mediamax news agency reports. He said that the speaker’s decision
to resign and his party’s decision to quit the ruling coalition was
adopted tonight at an expanded session of Orinats Yerkir’s political
council and was unanimous.

Markaryan said that Artur Bagdasaryan will hold a news conference at
1400 [1000 gmt] tomorrow and officially declare his resignation and
Orinats Yerkir’s decision to quit the coalition.

Several MPs quit the Orinats Yerkir faction in the last few days,
Mediamax reports.

Orinats Yerkir is a member of the ruling coalition along with the
Republican Party of Armenia and the Dashnaktsutyun Party on the basis
of a memorandum signed after the 2003 parliamentary election.