IS THERE A COALITION CRISIS?

Lragir.am
23 May 06

In his speech on his resignation Arthur Baghdasaryan dwelled on a
number of questions. The following are extracts from this speech.

“We follow the path to Armenia of our dreams. We find that democratic
reforms must be promoted more determinedly, that protection of
human rights, battle against corruption and clannish economy should
be declared a political priority, a political struggle against
protectionism, the vicious “one hand washes the other” approach should
be launched.”

“We believe that the future of Armenia must be democracy and freedom,
not a society of fear.”

“We believe that it is wrong to build two Armenias: Yerevan and
the regions.”

“We find that the consistent promotion of relations with the EU must
become a political goal, that Euro-Atlantic partnership is an important
and correct approach, and that we must promote U.S.-Armenian political
and economic cooperation. We are not supposed to become an indicator
of Russian-American relations. We have two ways: either to join the
Russia-Belarus union and get on well with the EU, or to join the EU
and have good relations with Russia. We endorse the second.”

“We are going to criticize fundamentally every shortcoming, every
wrong step, it does not matter who will take it, the president,
the government, any political force and organization. Government or
opposition, it does not matter. If you do a good thing, we will be
beside you, if you do a good thing for the homeland, we will support
and back you.”