Agence France Presse — English
March 26, 2007 Monday 2:29 PM GMT
Funeral for Armernian PM on Wednesday
YEREVAN, March 26 2007
A burial service for Armenian Prime Minister Andranik Margarian, who
died at the weekend, will be held on Wednesday, the government said
as the president prepared to announce a successor.
Margarian’s body will lie in state at the Yerevan Opera House on
Wednesday afternoon so the public can pay their last respects to the
man who had led the Armenian government since 2000.
He will then be buried at the Pantheon in the heart of the city, a
site reserved only for the most illustrious Armenians.
As laid down by the Armenian constitution, the entire government
resigned following the death of the prime minister.
The head of state, President Robert Kocharian, has 10 days to name a
new prime minister who will be officially announced after Margarian
is laid to rest, according to the government’s press service.
Government sources requesting anonymity said that Margarian, who died
on Sunday, is likely to be succeeded by Defence Minister Serge
Sarksian, with whom he had led the main Republican Party in
government.
Kocharian met Monday with the politicial parties and "decided the
post of prime minister should continue to be held by a representative
of the Republican Party," a spokesman for the party, Edouard
Charmazanov, told AFP.
Sarksian, currently in Moscow, has cancelled an imminent trip to
China.
Meanwhile, doctors confirmed conclusively that Margarian had died
from a heart attack.
"Medical experts have established that Andranik Margarian died
following a cardiac arrest caused by problems with his coronary
circulation," a government statement sent.