OPPOSITION TO VOTE AGAINST NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAM
- The Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the country's three leading opposition forces made clear on Tuesday that their lawmakers will vote against the new Armenian government's program submitted to parliament.
The National Assembly will open debates on the five-year program on Wednesday. Its approval by the parliament's pro-government majority will amount to a vote of confidence in Prime Minister Tigran Sarkisian's newly reshuffled cabinet.
The BHK announced its decision to reject the document after a meeting of its parliamentary faction, the second largest in the National Assembly. Tigran Urikhanian, the party spokesman, dismissed it as an "unrealistic program" that contains "numerous flaws."
"There are many such points. I can list them now but that will take one hour," Urikhanian told RFE/RL's Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). He said the BHK objects to economic and foreign policies which the government intends to take in the next five years.
Urikhanian also pointed to the fact that the vast majority of government ministers retained their posts after last month's parliamentary elections in which the BHK finished second.
The decision underlined the BHK's de facto opposition to President Serzh Sarkisian and his government. The party led by businessman Gagik Tsarukian pulled out of Sarkisian's governing coalition as a result of the May 6 elections.
Also planning to vote against the government program are the three openly opposition groups represented in the new parliament: the Armenian National Congress, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and the Zharangutyun (Heritage) party.
Khachatur Kokobelian, a senior Zharangutyun lawmaker, claimed that the document outlining key government policies is short of substance. "This is a big failure on the part of the government," he said. "This document offers no solutions to problems facing the Republic of Armenia."
Finance Minister Vache Gabrielian dismissed those objections, saying that parliament deputies would physically be unable to scrutinize the program if it contained concrete mechanisms for achieving policy objectives set by the government. Those include the creation of 100,000 new jobs and economic growth averaging 5-7 percent.
The opposition stance should not prevent the government from winning a vote of confidence. The ruling Republican Party of Armenia and its ally, the Orinats Yerkir party, control at least 75 seats in the 131-member parliament.
- Astghik Bedevian
U.S., RUSSIA, FRANCE URGE NEW PUSH FOR KARABAKH PEACE
The presidents of the United States, France and Russia on Tuesday promised more joint efforts to resolve the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and urged Armenia and Azerbaijan to iron out their differences on ...OPPOSITION TO VOTE AGAINST NEW GOVERNMENT PROGRAM
Astghik BedevianThe Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK) and the country's three leading opposition forces made clear on Tuesday that their lawmakers will vote against the new Armenian government's program submitted to parliament.
...
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Hovannes Shoghikian
- 1861 Birth of the Norwegian Friedhof Nansen (public figure). He died in 1930 after helping countless Armenian refugees, who had survived the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Turks. He created the "Nansen Passport" for these stateless refugees.
- 1911 Death of Petros Simonian, national figure, publicist in Tbilisi and editor of the "Meghoo Hayastanee" periodical.
- 1918 The first Armenian delegation arrived in Constantinople to start reconciliation talks with Turkey.
- 1935 Opening of the State Historical Museum of Armenia in Yerevan.
- 1954 Death of Smbat Boroyan, participant in the 1921 February rebellion and the volunteer movement of the Sassoon rebellion of 1904. He was born in 1882.
- 2001 Death of Sargis Baghdasarian, sculptor, artist and teacher. His "We are our mountains" - "Gharabaghthsiner" sculpture (1967) became a symbol of the national movement of Artsakh. He was born in 1923.
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