PanARMENIAN.Net
A number of experts suppose A. Margaryan’s death may
influence on internal political situation of Armenia
The post of prime minister in Armenia is not political
one, i.e. it does not determine anything, until any
force majeur situation takes place.
28.03.2007 GMT+04:00
As expected, Armenian Prime Minister’s sudden death became a cause for
various kinds of conjectures and suppositions for a number of experts
and analysts. Even some Azeri and Russian political scientists began
to guess that Andranik Margaryan did not die naturally. Let us leave
those suppositions on the conscious of `experts’, moreover if those
suppositions do not have anything in common with the reality.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ And moreover, it is immoral to make such statements
or draw a parallel with the `fusillade in the parliament’ in 1999. The
late Premier was distinguished with his rare ability to keep away from
games of politics. And maybe because of this A. Margaryan occupied
the post of Prime Minister for a long time. It’s also true that the
post of prime minister in Armenia is not political one, i.e. it nearly
does not determine anything, until any force majeur situation takes
place, like the resignation of Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 1998. But this
is rather an exception from rules. According to the Constitution of
the country the post of Prime Minister in the table of ranks occupies
the third place following the posts of President and Speaker. However
the fact that this post belongs to the ruling Republican Party of
Armenia (RPA) cannot be ignored.
Now Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan will head the list of the
Republican Party of Armenia; most probably Mr. Sargsyan will become
Armenia’s Prime Minister till the May 12 parliamentary election in the
country. What will happen after the elections is not clear yet.
Though RPA declares the position of the party has not undergone any
changes, actually republicans staggered a bit. The Prime Minister was
a rather outstanding figure in the party and after his death the party
may gather less votes than they expected. But all these are
suppositions. It seems that currently everyone will be satisfied
seeing Serzh Sargsyan in the post of Prime Minister simultaneously
keeping the post of Defense Minister. And regardless of the attitude
of opposition to this appointment, which by the way, merely does not
decide anything and cannot do anything, only Serzh Sargsyan remains
almost the only candidate for this post proceeding from the Regulation
of RPA and agreement between coalition parties-RPA, ARF Dashnaktsutyun
and United Labor Party (ULP), which replaced `Orinats Yerkir’.
But this is country’s internal policy. As to the foreign policy, here
too the policy of the RA again according to the Constitution,
determines the president of the country and not the Premier. Because
of this very reason there is no base to worry for European and Russian
officials that Armenia’s foreign course may undergo a rapid
change. According to political scientist Sergey Markedonov, on the eve
of parliamentarian election in Armenia the death of Andranik Margaryan
may seriously influence on the internal political situation of the
country, taking into account the fact that how policy on the
post-Soviet territory is personalized. At the same time, as the expert
thinks, serious changes are not expected in Armenian-Russian
relations. According to Markedonov, any following leader of Armenia
`will carry out less pro-Russian and more diverse foreign policy, but
it will not become a change towards Russia’. Indeed, some Russian
analysts for some reasons considered Margaryan a pro-Western
politician; actually this did not represent the facts obviously.
As to the personality of future prime minister, for the most part
besides Serzh Sargsyan still no candidature is being viewed for that
post. Good or bad-is a secondary question, since the most important
challenge for Armenian authorities is to provide stability and normal
parliamentary elections. And nobody but the current Defense Minister
can handle this task.
«PanARMENIAN.Net» analytical department