Pravda, Russia
May 29 2006

Armenian parliament speaker resigns after his party quit governing
coalition

Orinats Yerkir had been part of the three-party governing coalition
since 2003, when it teamed up with the Republican Party and
Dashnak-Tsutyun. It had 20 seats in the 131-seat parliament, but
Bagdasarian said when he announced plans to resign earlier this month
that nine of the lawmakers had quit the party in the previous weeks.

Bagdasarian triggered a political scandal in the Caucasus Mountain
nation last month when he reportedly told a German newspaper that
Armenia’s future lies with the European Union and NATO, and that
Russia should not block its Westward path, the AP reports.

President Robert Kocharian quickly disavowed the speaker’s statement,
saying that Armenia’s close military ties with Russia and other
regional countries provide sufficient security and that it has no
pans to join NATO.

Critics of Kocharian say he has violently cracked down on dissent,
allowed corruption to flourish and done little to improve the lot of
impoverished Armenia’s 3.3 million people.