Sunday,
Armenian Parliament Majority ‘Won’t Block’ Opposition Candidate For PM
• Tatevik Lazarian
Armenia - Deputies from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia at a parliament
session in Yerevan 28 February 2018.
A leading member of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) said on Sunday
that it will not try to prevent a joint candidate of the three other
parliamentary forces from becoming the country’s new prime minister.
Vahram Baghdasarian, who leads the HHK faction in the parliament, made this
clear after meeting with opposition leader Nikol Pashinian, the main organizer
of nationwide protests that have led to the resignation of Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian.
“If the three other political forces represented in the National Assembly have
a joint candidate … we will not block the candidate whom they will call the
people’s candidate,” Baghdasarian told reporters. HHK deputies will not boycott
Tuesday’s session of the parliament which is due to elect the next premier, he
said.
Pashinian said he received the same assurances from Baghdasarian at their
meeting. He said the HHK faction, which controls 58 of the 105 parliament
seats, is “predisposed” towards letting him become prime minister.
The position announced by Baghdasarian still needs to be formalized by the
largest parliamentary faction. Pashinian said that he will meet with HHK
lawmakers later in the day or Monday.
Pashinian’s candidacy has been endorsed not only by his Yelk alliance but also
Gagik Tsarukian’s bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation
(Dashnaktsutyun). The three forces hold a total of 47 parliament seats, meaning
that the opposition leader needs to be also backed by at least six HHK
parliamentarians if he is to succeed Sarkisian as prime minister.
Pashinian reaffirmed on Saturday his desire to serve as interim prime minister
who would organize fresh general elections. But he said he is ready to discuss
possible dates for such polls with the HHK and the other parliamentary forces.
The 42-year-old again declined to shed light on the composition of his would-be
cabinet. He said only that once in office he will be striving for an
“atmosphere of national accord and solidarity.”
Pashinian Confident About Becoming Armenian PM
• Emil Danielyan
Armenia - Supporters of opposition leader Nikol Pashinian block a street in
downtown Yerevan, .
Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian sounded confident on Sunday about his chances
of becoming Armenia’s prime minister after more than two weeks of massive
anti-government protests organized by him.
Pashinian said there is now a “very high likelihood” that “at least some
deputies” from the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) will vote for him
when the National Assembly picks the next premier on Tuesday.
“This means that we have a great opportunity to turn our de facto victory into
a de jure victory, which in turn means that our candidate will be elected prime
minister,” he told thousands of supporters that again rallied in Yerevan’s
central Republic Square.
“I am prepared to take up the post of Armenia’s prime minister in a responsible
manner,” he declared.
Pashinian addressed the crowd hours after meeting with Vahram Baghdasarian, the
leader of the HHK’s parliamentary faction, the largest in the National
Assembly. Baghdasarian said after the meeting that he and other HHK lawmakers
will not “block” Pashinian’s candidacy if it is formally nominated by the three
other political forces represented in the parliament.
The opposition Yelk alliance, the Tsarukian Bloc and the Armenian Revolutionary
Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) have already endorsed Pashinian for the country’s
top executive post. They control 47 parliament seats between them, compared
with 58 seats held by the HHK.
Armenia - Opposition leader Nikol Pashinian is hugged by a supporter during a
rally in Yerevan, .
The HHK faction is due to officially announce its position on the next premier
after meeting with Pashinian on Monday. The latter said his supporters should
therefore stop blocking streets and roads or taking other “civil disobedience”
actions until he reports the results of the planned meeting to them next
evening.
But he also cautioned: “This is not yet the end of the story and we must not
lose our vigilance.”
Earlier in the day, Pashinian also met with a visiting delegation of Russian
parliamentarians headed by Leonid Kalashnikov, chairman of a State Duma
committee on relations with former Soviet republics. He said the meeting took
place in a “very warm atmosphere” and that its participants came away from it
as “friends.” Russian-Armenian relations will only deepen further as a result
of regime change in Yerevan, he added.
During his unprecedented campaign, Pashinian has repeatedly stated that he is
not planning any major change of Armenian foreign policy. In particular, he has
ruled out Armenia’s withdrawal from the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty
Organization (CSTO) and Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).
Pashinian opposed Armenia’s membership in the EEU as recently as in October
last year, saying that it has dealt “very serious blows” to his country’s
sovereignty.
Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
Copyright (c) 2018 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
www.rferl.org
