TOP ARMY GENERAL NAMED ACTING DEFENSE MINISTER
By Emil Danielyan and Astghik Bedevian

Radio Liberty, Czech Rep.
April 5 2007

Colonel-General Mikael Harutiunian, the longtime chief of the Armenian
army’s General Staff, will serve as acting defense minister until the
formation of the country’s new government, officials said on Thursday.

The Defense Ministry spokesman, Colonel Seyran Shahsuvarian, said
Harutiunian, who is also Armenia’s first deputy defense minister,
will do so in accordance with a March 2002 presidential decree and
ministry statutes. Those stipulate that he shall substitute for the
minister in the latter’s "absence."

The key ministerial post was left vacant with Defense Minister Serzh
Sarkisian’s appointment as prime minister late on Wednesday. Under
the Armenian constitution, President Robert Kocharian appoints all
government ministers at the premier’s recommendation.

The basic law gives Sarkisian 20 days to form his cabinet and another
20 days to submit its program to parliament. With just over a month
to go before the upcoming parliamentary elections, he is unlikely
to seek its approval by the outgoing National Assembly. Sarkisian
is instead expected to step down, be re-appointed prime minister,
and form his cabinet after the May 12 elections.

This means Harutiunian will most probably perform defense minister’s
duties at least until June. The 61-year-old general served in the
Soviet armed forces before moving to Armenia and joining its newly
formed army in 1992, at the height of the war with Azerbaijan. He was
appointed as chief of army staff and first deputy defense minister
by then President Levon Ter-Petrosian two years later.

Harutiunian was born and grew up in a village in northern Azerbaijan.

He graduated from a Soviet military college in Baku 1967.

Armenian media reports have singled out Seyran Ohanian, commander
of Nagorno-Karabakh’s army, and former Deputy Defense Minister Artur
Aghabekian as Sarkisian’s most likely successors. Both men are Karabakh
Armenians loyal to Sarkisian.

Aghabekian resigned from his post and was discharged from the Armed
Forces in February to contest the elections as a candidate of the
governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). The
move fueled speculation that Sarkisian will pick Aghabekian as the
next defense minister in exchange for a Dashnaktsutyun endorsement
of his anticipated presidential bid. Aghabekian on Thursday again
refused to comment on the speculation.

But a top Dashnaktsutyun leader, Hrant Markarian, did admit that the
nationalist party has set its sights on the Defense Ministry. "Artur
Aghabekian is the most worthy candidate for the post of defense
minister," Markarian told RFE/RL. He said Ohanian could work as one
of Aghabekian’s deputies and/or head the General Staff.