Sarkisyan vs Kocharyan

David Stepanyan, Yerevan. Exclusively to Vestnik Kavkaza

Premier of Armenia Tigran Sarkisyan stated at the end of 2013 that construction in the 2000s was a soap bubble. The statement marked the start of a quarrel between him and the former president Robert Kocharyan. Now they are trying to realize “who is guilty?” After the premier’s statement, Kocharyan gave an interview in which he said that “a disabled prime minister is an unattainable luxury for the country.” On January 13th the mass media published an interview with Kocharyan and an article by Sarkisyan, in which the former colleagues dragged each other’s names through the mud.

The prime minister presented an analysis of “the soap bubble” in the construction sphere. Sarkisyan stated that the market prices of the assets of buildings which were built during Kocharyan’s term were overpriced compared to their costs, determined by basic economic factors. He explained it was due to cheating. According to him, the real picture in the Armenian construction sector was drawn by the world financial crisis, which revealed the speculative growth of the construction sector and led to a drastic fall of 51.9%; this led to an economic fall of 18.5%. Thus, Sarkisyan’s government diversified the economy, which yielded certain results, according to the prime minister. He stated the figures and concluded the article with a statement that “for many people the analysis of the past and the current situations is incomprehensible and unpleasant.”

Kocharyan replied that he had no intention of arguing with anyone, especially with a lame-duck Premier. According to him, the prime minister is trying to blame his failures on the acts of his predecessors. Kocharyan also accused Sarkisyan of hiding real gas prices, which led to a 300-million debt, the sale of 20% of ArmRosGazprom, and the establishment of exclusive conditions for the company until 2043.

Touching on fulfillment of Sarkisyan’s long-held dream about forced implementation of the Defined Contribution Pension System, Kocharyan criticized the reform heavily. He believes that the system will probably fail and citizens’ savings will be lost in the case of another financial crisis.

It is true that the prime minister traditionally blames all the unsuccessful initiatives of his government on the “bad” heritage from Kocharyan’s government. And the reaction from the former president seems reasonable. Tigran Sarkisyan suddenly forgot how he, the head of the Central Bank, devalued the Armenian dram from 300 to 360 drams per dollar in March 2009 in order to please international financial loan structures. The population lost 1/5 of their dollar savings in one day. In fact, the list of the prime minister's “successful” deeds is very long.

The difference between the economic policies of the current prime minister and the former president is in the methods, but the goals are the same – the prosperity of a small circle of people. Kocharyan’s government provided economic growth due to implementation of major infrastructural projects and attraction of foreign investment. Sarkisyan’s government is increasing tax burdens and diving into citizens’ pockets.