COMMUNIST PARTY DENIES RECONCILIATION CALLS

Armenpress

YEREVAN, JULY 13, ARMENPRESS: The leadership of the Armenian Communist
Party (ACP) has flatly rejected proposals by senior members of two
splinter groups for reunification. The reunification idea was voiced
last week by leaders of the so-called Refreshed Communist Party and
the Progressive Communist party- Yuri Manukian and Vazgen Safarian-
who were expelled from the Communist party at different times.

Tachat Sarkisian, the head of the Yerevan chapter of the Armenian
Communist party, told a news conference today that the leaders
of the two-called Communist parties were ousted from the party for
violation of its regulations and therefore, he said, there is no need
for reunification.

Tachat Sarkisian claimed that Yuri Manukian and Vazgen Safarian were
eager to reunify with ACP hoping to squeeze into the parliament in next
year’s elections ‘because they realize that they have no chances to
do so alone.’ He said ‘reunification’ will only damage the ACP’s image.

The reunification idea was earlier denied by the first secretary of
ACP Ruben Tovmasian, who ruled out any reconciliation and cooperation
with Manukian and Safarian, saying their only goal was to return
to parliament.

The ACP received about 10 percent of the vote in the parliamentary
and presidential elections held between 1995 and 1999, but failed to
win a seat in the 2003 parliamentary election.