VIKTOR DALLAKIAN: ARDARUTIUN BLOC IS READY TO COOPERATE WITH COALITION FORCES
IN ISSUE OF RETURNING DEPOSITS
YEREVAN, December 21 (Noyan Tapan). The Ardarutiun faction boycotting
NA sittings took part in the signature collection on the issue of
calling a special session dedicated to returning of deposits and the
session attaching importance to this issue. The session was boycotted
by the order of some forces representing the coalition and by RA
President. Viktor Dallakian, Secretary of Ardarutiun (Justice) faction,
made this statement during the December 20 press conference. “The
opposition had come to work and where were the others?” the MP
mentioned reminding the appeals to work together addressed to the
opposition. According to him, the failure to hold the special session
also shows presence of serious problems within the power. Dallakian
assured that at the press conference held during the President’s
visit to Lori marz the President, in fact, ordered to fail the special
session. According to the MP, the goal of the President was to show
to the Prime Minister that he has no majority in the parliament, to
show to the NA Speaker that he has 44 supporters in this issue (44
out of 66 MPs participating in the signature collection registered
for participation in the session: NT) and to make the Dashnaktsutiun
understand that though there was the issue of returning the deposits
in their pre-electoral program everything will be done in accordance
with the will of the President. Declaring that he doesn’t want to give
advice to anybody the speaker mentioned that in a civilized country the
head of the parliament attaching importance to the solution of such
issue would either vote against the draft budget not stipulating the
deposits or would come out of the political coalition. Speaking about
the statement of RA President that no issue of returning the deposits
was touched upon in his pre-electoral programs, Dallakian referred to
the part of 1998 pre-electoral program of the President envisaging
“elaboration of opportunities solving the issue of compensation of
the deposits the people had with the former Savingsbank.” As for the
President’s proposal to establish a commission attending to this issue,
according to Dallakian, establishment of a commission is the best way
of “burying” any issue. The MP also mentioned that his legislative
initiative connected with returning of the deposits is the only
one put to the agenda of the NA large session in 2003 October. The
draft for the first time suggested to stipulate by the law that the
state is indebted to the population, declared that the debt should be
paid off and this should be done through a program approach. If the
government possessing the whole information submits such a program
that will be approved by the parliament and signed by the President
the legislative and executive bodies will assume the responsibility of
returning the deposits, so a political consensus will be made and no
political force may speculate the issue connected with returning of
the deposits any longer. According to the author of the initiative,
the draft suggested establishment of a fund accumulating the sums
necessary for returning of the deposits. Dallakian qualified the
variant of returning the deposits from the state budget as a “deceit
in relation to depositors” as the budget revenues almost completely
are recieved from taxes. According to him, the resources of the
above-mentioned fund may be received from the privatization sums, sums
of concession agreements, proift tax and so on. Dallakian mentioned
that appearance of a large money mass on the market in a short term
will lead to inflation and fall of economy, so the issue of sums and
terms should be solved by the government with participation of the
Central Bank. As for the equivalent, the former exchange of rouble
against dram at 200:1 correlation was a result of artificial approach
and the US dollar had no real exchange rate in the Soviet Union. So,
the correlation of cost of gold in 1991 and in the year of repayment
of the deposit may be considered as a criterion of the exchange
rate. These are the reasons compelling the draft author not to fix
any figures and reserve the calculations for the government. The bill
on returning of the deposits also suggested giving not sums but notes
of hand to the depositors fixing the concrete sums ans the terms of
their returning. A depositor may sell the note of hand or keep it for
his legatees. Dallakian assured that there will be no accusations
of deceiving people in case of following to these principles and
the issue may be solved as a result of a political consensus. He
considered it possible that these approaches will be admissible for
the ARF Dashnaktsutiun and Republican Party of Armenia making part of
the coalition. As for the Ardarutiun faction, it is ready to cooperate
with the coalition forces in the issue of returning of the deposits.