TOP REPUBLICAN SLAMS DASHNAK ‘POPULISM’
By Ruben Meloyan

Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
May 2 2007

A senior government official affiliated with the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia (HHK) on Wednesday dismissed as "populist" its junior
coalition partner’s pre-election pledge to sharply raise the country’s
modest pensions and salaries.

The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), which holds
four ministerial posts in Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian’s cabinet,
has committed itself to more than doubling the minimum monthly wage to
50,000 drams ($140,000) as early as next year. Its campaign manifesto
also says the average pension will be raised from the current 13,400
drams ($38) to 50,000 in 2008 if the center-left nationalist party
does well in next week’s parliamentary elections.

Vazgen Khachikian, the Republican head of the state pension, criticized
the campaign pledges in a public debate with Deputy Social Security
Minister Artsvi Minasian, a member of Dashnaktsutyun. "We take into
account Armenia’s real potential for development, while the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation is setting objectives which I believe can
not be achieved in the foreseeable future," said Khachikian.

The HHK program says that the average monthly amount of retirement
benefits paid to more than 500,000 Armenians will reach 33,500 drams
only in 2012. Dashnaktsutyun leaders, including Social Security
Minister Aghvan Vartanian, insist, however, that pensions and broader
public spending will grow much faster if the government combats
widespread corruption and tax evasion in earnest.

Khachikian claimed that Dashnaktsutyun has set far more ambitious
targets simply because it feels safe in the knowledge that it will
not be running the government as a result of the May 12 elections.

"An election campaign is not the best time to give lavish promises,
while realizing that you are not responsible for delivering on them,"
he said.

"You thereby predetermine that power will remain in your hands
forever," countered Minasian.

"Not forever, just for the next five years," replied Khachikian. "You
know well that the Republican Party leads in all opinion polls. At
least, we will get more votes than Dashnaktsutyun."

The HHK spokesman, Eduard Sharmazanov, said last week that the party
led by Sarkisian expects to win at least one third of the vote. Other
top Republicans have said the HHK aims to do even better and grab an
absolute majority of seats in the next National Assembly.

The HHK’s victory in the last parliamentary elections was rejected
as fraudulent by the Armenian opposition and even Dashnaktsutyun.

Opposition leaders claim that the HHK is using its government levers
to rig the upcoming polls as well. The Republicans deny the claims.