BAGHDASARIAN RETURNS TO ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT
By Anna Saghabalian
Radio Liberty, Czech Republic
Feb 29 2008
In a dramatic about-face, opposition leader Artur Baghdasarian
on Friday recognized Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian as Armenia’s
legitimate president-elect and agreed to join a new coalition
government which the latter has pledged to form in the coming weeks.
In a declaration read out by Baghdasarian to journalists, the two
men pledged to jointly deal with "internal and external challenges"
facing the country, strengthen democracy and promote fair business
competition.
"This agreement means that the newly elected president of Armenia
will be more confident and determined in meeting existing challenges
and implementing bold positive reforms in our country and the lives
of our people," said the former parliament speaker.
The far-reaching deal came just three days after Sarkisian expressed
readiness to defuse post-election tensions in Armenia by forming
a new, more broad-based government involving some of his election
challengers, including Baghdasarian. The current Armenian government
was jointly formed by outgoing President Robert Kocharian, Sarkisian’s
Republican Party (HHK), the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) following the May
2007 parliamentary elections.
Sarkisian indicated on Friday that his new cabinet will include only
representatives of the three parties as well as Baghdasarian’s Orinats
Yerkir Party. But he would not say which ministerial posts Orinats
Yerkir will get.
It was announced that as part of the power-sharing deal Baghdasarian
will take over as the new secretary of Armenia’s National Security
Council, a largely ceremonial position currently held by the chief
of Kocharian’s staff. The council, which comprises the country’s top
state officials, has rarely met and made decisions during Kocharian’s
decade-long rule.
Sarkisian said the body will play a more significant role during his
presidency. "This is the third or fourth most important position in
the republic which I think will allow Mr. Baghdasarian to get fully
involved in the governance of our country," he told a joint news
conference with the ex-speaker.
Baghdasarian and his party had already been part of the ruling
coalition before being force out of it for their allegedly populist
stance nearly two years ago. His falling-out with Armenia’s two top
leaders looked irreversible in May last year when Kocharian publicly
accused him of high treason. The accusation stemmed from Baghdasarian’s
secretly recorded conversation with a Yerevan-based British diplomat
in which the ex-speaker urged the West to criticize the Armenian
government’s conduct of the upcoming parliamentary election.
Baghdasarian harshly criticized both Kocharian and Sarkisian during the
presidential election campaign, alleging that they deliberately keep
many Armenian in poverty to be able to buy their votes. He accused
the government of "plundering" scarce public resources and hampering
business competition.
He also claimed to have received death threats from the authorities.
Sarkisian dismissed this as a "pre-election trick."
According to the Central Election Commission, Baghdasarian received
more than 16 percent of the vote in the February 19 presidential
ballot, trailing Sarkisian and former President Levon Ter-Petrosian.
In its first post-election statement, Orinats Yerkir said its leader
got "considerably" more votes than were reported by the CEC. It claimed
that the vote was marred by "numerous falsifications" and demanded the
scrapping of official vote results in more than 100 polling stations
and recounts in 200 others.
However, Baghdasarian described the election outcome as legitimate on
Friday, saying that he and Sarkisian got more than 1 million votes
and therefore represent about 70 percent of Armenians who went to
the polls.