KARABAKH PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HRANT MELKUMYAN’S ELECTION PLATFORM
BBC Monitoring research
17 Jul 07
The leader of the Communist party in Nagornyy Karabakh, who is also
a presidential candidate, has said that the ultimate goal of this
separatist republic is its unification with Armenia. In his election
platform, Hrant Melkumyan also called for "drastic" changes in the
republic’s social and economic policies. Nagornyy Karabakh is to hold
a presidential election on 19 July. Following a war for this disputed
region in the early 1990s, Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a cease-fire
in 1994, but the dispute remains unresolved after more than a decade
of negotiations and troops remain in a tense standoff. The following
is the text of Melkumyan’s election platform published and distributed
in Nagornyy Karabakh ahead of the election; subheadings as published:
Hrant Artem Melkumyan was born on 4 April 1951 in Stepanakert. He
studied in Stepanakert Armenian language secondary school No 2 and
later on in Stepanakert evening school’s mathematical class. In 1974
he graduated from the department of mechanics and machine-building
of Yerevan Polytechnic Institute.
After graduating from the institute he worked as a constructor at
Yerevan Art Clock factory. In 1975 he returned home and started
to work in Stepanakert Electrotechnical Plant and later on in the
Nagornyy Karabakh Regional Komsomol. In 1980 he joined the Communist
Party at the beginning as an instructor on industry of the Nagornyy
Karabakh regional party committee.
Then he became the second and later on the first secretary of the
Stepanakert city party committee. In 1986 he graduated from the
Supreme Party School under the Central Committee of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union and got a diploma in political analysis.
Hrant Melkumyan was an activist of the Karabakh movement. In 1989 he
was elected member of the [Nagornyy Karabakh] National Council. In
1991 he was the chief engineer in the Artsakh-Oniks firm, director of
the Shushi [Susa] radio production enterprise as well as a professor
at the department of technical sciences of Stepanakert pedagogical
institute. In 1996 he worked in the NKR [Nagornyy Karabakh republic]
construction ministry and between 1998 and 2002, in different
departments of the NKR cabinet of ministers.
Since December 2002 he has been the head of the Audit Service of the
NKR cabinet of ministers. In 2001 he was elected the first secretary
of the NKR Communist party. Hrant Melkumyan is married and has three
children.
His main slogans are "With the people for the people", "Law and
Justice", "Jobs and decent life", "Developing villages", "Quality
education", "Accessible health care and decent pensions".
Part one. Political sphere
A new cabinet of ministers trusted by the people should be
formed. Members of the cabinet should possess high professional
qualities and abilities to carry out a complex of activities to
handle the socio-economic crisis, rapid development of agriculture
and industry, create new jobs, raise the welfare of the population.
Substantial changes should be made to the NKR constitution to widen
the competencies and responsibilities of the legislative and executive
branches.
People must have a right to dismiss National Assembly deputies and
state officials who have failed to live up to people’s expectations. A
modified version of people’s power – soviets, which are the true
democratic and people’s political system – should be reintroduced.
In the NKR, human rights and individual liberties are absolute
values. A democratic multiparty system guarantees security, dignity
and freedom of NKR citizens, contributes to the formation of free
mass media and civic society, ensures internal harmony and peace.
Efforts should be made to establish supremacy of law and equality
before the law.
Special programme to fight corruption and bribery should be developed.
Part two. Economic sphere
The current socioeconomic policy carried out in the republic must be
drastically changed. All types of property should coexist in harmony
with the prevalence of state property.
There should be an inventory of state property and privatized
facilities while simultaneously checking whether privatization
was carried out in accordance with the law and the price paid for
privatizing facilities corresponds to their real value.
A special programme to nationalize large industrial enterprises of
strategic significance should be developed. An important guarantee
of the effective work of those enterprises would be joint ventures
with enterprises in the Republic of Armenia, Russia and ally states
in the CIS.
The state tax policy should be drastically changed. In the leading
spheres of agriculture and industry, tax rates should be substantially
decreased, while the opposite should take place in the spheres
of banking and brokerage. Tax evasion and shadow economy will be
severely punished.
A legal act stating that land is national property should be
issued. Land could be leased and inherited by individual or cooperative
agricultural enterprises only for producing agricultural products. The
purchase and sale of land should be prohibited.
Changes should be introduced in tax field exempting peasants
from paying taxes for two years. They have to be provided with
preferential long-term loans to purchase agricultural machinery,
seeds, etc. Peasants who live in liberated and border regions should
be exempted from all kinds of taxes and payments for three years. In
our republic we must crate tractor-machinery stations to assist the
development of the agricultural sphere. The production and sale of
bread and bakery products should be placed under state control. In
villages water for irrigation must be provided free of charge.
There should be a state monopoly on strategically important raw
materials, light and food industry, highly profitable spheres (alcohol,
tobacco, etc.).
Small and medium-sized businesses should receive state assistance and
for this very reason a special state fund must be established. State
assistance should be provided also to enterprises working on local
raw materials and possessing export potential.
Part three. Social sphere
We have to re-establish social justice and equality through
constitutional changes. We have to decrease unemployment through
creating new jobs.
Salaries, pensions and benefits should increase. A state network for
free health care should be established. Young people have to receive
free secondary and higher education. New impetus should be given to
the development of sports and tourism. Favourable conditions should
be created for ethnic minorities to develop their culture.
Programmes to boost birth rate should be carried out in the
republic. These programmes should be viewed as the most important
guarantee of strengthening our state. Young families should be provided
with long-term loans to buy apartments. These loans will not be paid
back if there are five or more children going to school in the family.
A republican house building programme should be developed. In the
NKR the free distribution of apartments should be reintroduced.
Part four. National security, defence and foreign policy
The essence of Artsakh [Nagornyy Karabakh] policies will be the
de-jure international recognition of the Nagornyy Karabakh republic
and its reunification with Mother Armenia in the long run.
The Nagornyy Karabakh conflict should be settled within the framework
of the OSCE Minsk Group and exclusively through political negotiations
on the basis of people’s right to self-determination. The status of
Nagornyy Karabakh as a full party to the negotiation process should
be restored. No agreement on Nagornyy Karabakh status can be reached
without the participation of the Karabakh side. Among the scenarios of
the Nagornyy Karabakh conflict settlement could be the NKR’s joining a
new Union of Independent States as an independent and sovereign member.
The NKR self-defence system must be further strengthened. The
NKR’s defence army is the most important security guarantee for its
population. In the armed forces the share of professional servicemen
will be annually increased. Our goal is to have a hundred per cent
professional army.
Military departments should be reopened in all our universities.
Through legislative changes we have to expand the diaspora’s
involvement in the NKR’s economic revival. Artsakh and the diaspora
should establish mutually beneficial cooperation. We have to make
joint efforts for the international recognition of the 1915 genocide
[killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey].
Programmes for the further expansion of economic, educational and
cultural integration between the NKR and the Republic of Armenia
should be developed.