ARMENIAN SPEAKER UNDECIDED ON RESIGNATION – PAPER

Aykakan Zhamanak, Yerevan
11 May 06

Excerpt from Naira Zograbyan’s report in Armenian newspaper Aykakan
Zhamanak on 11 May headlined “They are intensively destroying the
Law-Governed Country Party”.

On 9 May, parliament speaker Artur Bagdasaryan did not congratulate
the people of Armenia on the occasion of Victory Day, nor did he join
[President] Robert Kocharyan and members of the government when they
laid flowers at the monument to an unknown soldier in Victory Park.

We have the impression that Bagdasaryan dodged his duties as parliament
speaker.

Rumours circulated yesterday that Artur Bagdasaryan will tender his
resignation on 22 May during the four-day sitting of parliament
and the Law-Governed Country Party [LGCP] will leave the ruling
coalition. The LGCP neither confirmed nor denied these rumours. The
deputy chairman of the party, Mger Shakhgeldyan, only said that the
party’s official position will be made public soon. Meanwhile, some
influential members of the party have left it.

[Passage omitted: list of these members]

After that, only 10 MPs [from the party] remained instead of 21.

However, this is not all of the potential of the authorities for
punishing Bagdasaryan. After removing MPs who have their own businesses
from the LGCP, they will remove MPs from the party’s political board.

Let us recall that the overall operation for the destruction of
the LGCP is guided from the president’s residence, and Kocharyan is
immediately informed if any member of the party applies for leaving
it. But nobody knows about the actual reason for Bagdasaryan’s quick
destruction. There is panic within the party. What is Bagdasaryan
going to do? According to our information, he is in panic too and
cannot make a decision. Some ministers and officials that occupy high
posts and are members of the LGCP are persuading Bagdasaryan not
to tender his resignation. The Armenian Revolutionary Federation –
Dashnaktsutyun dodges comment on the situation. The leader of the
parliamentary faction of the [ruling] Republican Party of Armenia,
Galust Saakyan, does not think that Artur Bagdasaryan will tender
his resignation, but if he does, Saakyan will respect him more.

Anyway, domestic political developments are entering an interesting
phase.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress