Published since 07.2002
Published on July 18, 2008
COURTING ‘HERITAGE’: TER-PETROSYAN, PRIME MINISTER WOO PARLIAMENT’S SOLE OPPOSITION PARTY
- Opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan called the election bloc with which he participated in the February presidential vote “anachronism” and urged his parliamentary ally to become one of the main pillars of his emerging National Congress as he addressed the fifth congress of Raffi Hovannisian’s Heritage party late last week. Armenia’s first president praised Heritage for its support before and after the presidential election and described the party as his Popular Movement’s mouthpiece in the Armenian legislature. He also appreciated the efforts of the Heritage representative at the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly (PACE), saying that he imagines how difficult it is for a single representative to achieve a result in this “bureaucratic” structure. “[My] result in the election would have been much more modest but for Heritage,” Ter-Petrosyan acknowledged. Heritage’s congress on Friday was attended by other representatives of the Ter-Petrosyan-led opposition, as well as senior representative of the coalition member party, Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Hrant Margaryan as well as current Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan. The latter said he had come to “build bridges”. “A strong opposition means strong government and strong society,” Sargsyan said, highly evaluating Heritage’s role in the country’s political life. “I suggest emphasizing factors that unite us rather than divide,” Sargsyan continued. “The doors of cooperation are always open before you. The offer made by President Serzh Sargsyan on February 26 is still valid. Today, it is not time for new watersheds. Today it is time for unity and work.” Addressing his words to Heritage, Ter-Petrosyan expressed his “sympathy” with the party: “You have to work in a parliament where a considerable part is criminal, like in the other institutions of state governance.” The first president also expressed his “sympathy” with the prime minister, saying that he has inherited a “heavy legacy” and it was his duty to “clean the [government’s] Augean stables.” “I am saying with all frankness that as a professional, a serious economist, the prime minister understands this country’s problems,” said Ter-Petrosyan. “This is not a provocation, Tigran. What I am saying is true. You have much to do, especially within the institution that you head.” Sargsyan did not stay to hear Raffi Hovannisian’s address as he left the governmental conference hall where Heritage’s congress was being held immediately after Ter-Petrosyan’s speech. In his speech, Hovannisian, in particular, charged that those who ordered to fire at peaceful protesters on March 1 are responsible for today’s situation of “lack of legitimacy and lack of confidence.” He said in the matter of disclosing the circumstances of the March 1 tragedy Heritage placed particular importance on listening to Armenia’s first, second and third presidents. “Particularly the second president and the chief of his security service,” Hovannisian emphasized. Condemning the authorities for “illegally imprisoning political figures and citizens”, the Heritage party leader called for achieving justice through action rather than words. “Of course rule of law, of course anti-corruption struggle, but from top to bottom. Start from yourselves, from your relatives, from your brothers and staff members,” Hovannisian underscored. During its congress Heritage elected its new Board and installed MP Anahit Bakhshyan as its new chairperson. The delegates to the party’s congress ordered the Board to specify mutually acceptable grounds, the range of issues and form of partnership with the Armenian National Congress through negotiations and consultations with the emerging umbrella structure for the pro-Ter-Petrosyan opposition movement. The party also adopted a resolution in which it particularly authorized its council to discuss and make a decision at an extended party session in January on the expedience of the Heritage faction’s further participation in the work of the National Assembly.
- Gayane Mkrtchyan
Headlines for July 18, 2008
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Today in Armenian history- 1894 Birth of Vahan Totovents (writer). He was murdered by the Soviet Secret Police in 1937.
- 1914 The Central Committees of Taron and Sassoon present the reform program to three embassies in Constantinople.
- 1938 Birth of Perch Zeytuntsyan (playwright) in Cairo (Egypt).
- 1988 The USSR Supreme Soviet, relies on Article 78 of the Soviet Constitution (prohibition of any territorial changes to a Union Republic without its consent) to deny the 1988 02 20 petition by the Autonomous Region of Nagorno Gharabagh to rejoin Armenia.
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