Armenia: Plot and plot-makers

A power shuffle among the authorities of Armenia is taking place in Yerevan. The reason for it is a plot revealed in the ruling coalition against President Serge Sargsyan and the Republican Party of Armenia, which controls more than a half of the seats in the parliament of the country.

According to the opposition media sources, the speaker of the National Assembly, Ovik Abramyan, who is the member of a kind of Politbureau of RPA, had a talk with the head of the traffic police of Armenia, Markar Oganyan. The subject of the talk: the head of the traffic police was suggested to organize agitation in favor of Prosperous Armenia party through his staff during the next election campaign. For this favor Oganyan was promised the position of the head of the police of Armenia after success of Prosperous Armenia in the parliamentary elections. Moreover, Prosperous Armenia is the partner of RPA within the ruling coalition.

Oganyan agreed to the speaker’s proposal and… was arrested for fuel grand larceny in early September.
On November 1st at the meeting of RPA Council the parliament speaker Abramyan was accused of betrayal of the party’s interests and of plot. Of course, the speaker denied all accusations until the members of the council were presented the audio record of the talk between Abramyan Oganyan. After it the speaker of the parliament agreed to resign. According to the official information he was generously allowed to head the headquarters of RPA during the next parliamentary elections. However, it is only a preliminary decision and it can be cancelled.

The reports say that the talk between the speaker and the head of the traffic police was initiated by the former president of the country Robert Kocharyan. Abramyan is also a close relative of the tycoon Gagik Tsarukyan, who heads Prosperous Armenia. Tsarukyan is the main business-partner of Kocharyan.
President Sargsyan learned about the plot against him and RPA in late August and early September, but he began decisive action against his opponents two months ago only. Probably he waited for favorably moment.

It is interesting that the predecessor of Abramyan, Tigran Torosyan, was one of the oldest members of RPA, but it didn’t save him from resignation during political and post-election bargains in top echelons of power in 2008.

Action against the plot-makers includes all power shuffles in Armenia. The shuffle is aimed at prevention from real power of persons, who are connected directly or indirectly with Kocharyan. Resignation of the mayor of Yerevan, Karen Karapetyan, is of the same sort.

As for the position of the speaker of the parliament, the head of the parliamentary commission on legal issues, the head of the parliamentary delegation of Armenia in PACE, David Arutyunyan, is considered as the most likely candidate. He is one of the most devoted supporters of the regime. In addition, Arutyunyan has wide experience in parliamentary diplomacy within various international structures. Thus, Arytyunyan at the position of the parliament speaker of Armenia will be welcomed by the Western partners of Yerevan. However, the authorities of RPA can consider other variants too.

Sargsyan began the process of partial transformation of power in Aremnia. According to logic of this transformation, new power will be less connected with the former president Kocheryan. Sargsyan should do it earlier, but some internal and external factors prevented this process. These factors didn’t vanish, but some clearness in relations with West and Russia appeared. As for Kocheryan, he probably will try to resist this process. However, his resource potential has been narrowed significantly.

David Petrosyan, published in The Novyan Tapan Highlights N40