EX-SPEAKER’S PARTY TO GO IT ALONE
By Irina Hovannisian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
Feb 7 2007

Former parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian said on Wednesday that
his Orinats Yerkir party, one of the largest in Armenia, will not
form an alliance with other opposition groups to contest the May 12
parliamentary elections.

Baghdasarian said the decision to take part in the vote single-handedly
was made at a meeting of the party’s governing board the previous
night.

"In artificial alliances, jealousy is stronger than love," he
explained. "We think that it’s better to have healthy cooperation
on concrete issues and principles than to consolidate parties with
different ideologies and programs."

Orinats Yerkir, which claims to have more than 90,000 members, has
been courted by other major opposition parties ever since it was
forced out of President Robert Kocharian’s governing coalition in
May last year. Baghdasarian has reportedly discussed with some of
them the possibility of setting up a pro-Western electoral alliance.

The ambitious ex-speaker said he is open to other forms of close
cooperation with "healthy opposition forces." He said that includes
jointly countering attempts to falsify election results, which are
anticipated by many other opposition figures. Baghdasarian was less
pessimistic on that score, saying that the Armenian opposition is
able to prevent vote rigging.

Like the other opposition Artarutyun alliance and the National Unity
Party (AMK), Orinats Yerkir controls one of the nine seats in the
Central Election Commission and its territorial divisions. The party
is expected to be a major contender in the upcoming elections thanks
to its leader’s populist appeal.

Asked whether he is ready to again team up with parties loyal to
Kocharian after the vote, Baghdasarian told reporters, "Naturally,
we will primarily cooperate with opposition forces. We want the
opposition to have a majority [in parliament.] To that end, we will
cooperate with all opposition parties."