OVERTHROWING THE PRIME MINISTER IS AN OLD ARMENIAN CUSTOM IT SEEMS

Tert.am
16:08 ~U 24.03.10

The practice of overthrowing prime ministers has become an old Armenian
custom, said Republican Party of Armenia MP Gagik Minasyan at a press
conference today, while commenting on recent reports that RA Prime
Minister Tigran Sargsyan may be removed from his position.

Earlier, the prime minister was criticized by the Armenian
Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun, ARF-D), the Prosperous
Armenia Party from the parliamentary coalition and Armenia’s second
president, Robert Kocharian.

Minasyan mentioned that as far as he remembered such attempts to
overthrow the prime minister have always been made toward all prime
ministers.

"Mr. Sargsyan is working and is doing his job well," said Minasyan.

In relation to the economic policy implemented in Armenia, Minasyan
said that the bail-out program really justified itself.

"Last year, under rather hard conditions, we didn’t cut back any
social programs," said Minasyan, adding that last year the average
salary in Armenia rose by 12%.

Former Foreign Minister of the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh Arman
Melikyan, in turn, said that in these circumstances, devaluation and
inflation should be taken into account.

"Our governing system is not an efficient one, it is corrupted,"
said he.

While speaking about Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, Melikyan said
that the domestic tension in Armenia is becoming more acute also
within the ranks of government officials.