KOCHARIAN CRITICIZES ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT
Ruzanna Stepanian
Radio Liberty ~ azatutyun.am
March 23 2010
In remarks that will fuel more speculation about his desire to return
to power, former President Robert Kocharian on Tuesday criticized
economic policies pursued by Armenia’s current government.
In an interview with the Mediamax news agency, Kocharian specifically
attacked the government’s response to the global financial crisis
that has hit the country hard. He effectively accused the authorities
of squandering an "ideal macroeconomic situation" which he said they
had inherited from his administration.
"True, economic crises take place from time to time," said Kocharian.
"One should be mindful of and prepare for that during good years. But
not by restraining economic development but by accumulating reserves,
cutting the state debt and budget deficit, diversifying trade and so
on. And that’s what we did."
Kocharian argued that during his 1998-2008 rule the Armenian economy
grew by over 10 percent per annum while the external debt and budget
deficit steadily decreased as a share of Gross Domestic Product. He
dismissed a widely held belief that the economy contracted sharply
in 2009 because it had grown excessively dependent on a construction
boom, a key driving force of the robust growth.
Kocharian claimed that there is still "huge" domestic demand for
apartments and office space and that the government of President Serzh
Sarkisian could have used it for mitigating the impact of the global
recession. "We should consolidate efforts to maintain housing demand,"
he told Mediamax. "There are many ways of doing that. I think the
government now understands that."
"It was extremely important to start that in advance, when the crisis
was only beginning to move towards Armenia," he added in a jibe at
the government.
Representatives of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK)
declined to immediately comment on the extraordinary criticism, while
a leading member of the main opposition Armenian National Congress
(HAK) scoffed at it. "Not a single fact [cited by the ex-president]
corresponds to reality," former Prime Minister Hrant Bagratian told
RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
Bagratian claimed that the Kocharian administration inflated economic
growth rates and artificially stimulated the construction sector for
"personal gain." He said the construction boom benefited only the
wealthiest Armenians and eventually turned out to be a bubble.
The HAK has remained Kocharian’s most bitter detractor even after he
handed over power to Sarkisian in April 2008. Newspapers supporting
the opposition alliance have since regularly speculated about his
impending return to active politics. Some of them claimed recently that
Kocharian has demanded that Sarkisian appoint him as prime minister.