By Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kakvaza
Pro-government experts and mass media have recently been spreading information about secret ties between the government and the opposition, the weakness of the opposition, and a schism in the ranks of Dashnaktsutyun (ARF), Prosperous Armenia (BHK), Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Heritage. “Judging by the developments on the political field around constitutional reforms, we can suppose that the parliamentary quarter is in crisis, and it is a serious problem,” says Stepan Safaryan, the head of the Institute for International Security Affairs.
There are differences within the quartet. Firstly, the differences over appealing the new law on accumulative pensions at the Constitutional Court. Secondly, BHK, ANC and Heritage speaking against the reforms are confident that the upcoming changes were only initiated for government reproduction and will not resolve one of the main problems. Only Dashnaktsutyun wants constitutional changes that would transform the republican from the presidential to the parliamentary-presidential.
“If the Constitution remains unchanged, a governance crisis will start. Even within the framework of the current Constitution, if the government wants to reproduce, it will do so. Consequently, thinking that the goal of constitutional reforms is the will to reproduce means to bury the real struggle. Our goal is to use constitutional changes to form a system, including an electoral one, that would not allow the government to reproduce,” says MP Artsvik Minasyan of Dashnaktsutyun.
The surprise of some experts and politicians that the quartet has differences seems somewhat strange. It is logical that the different political forces have differences, otherwise they would have formed a united party.
During consultations on September 9, the quartet agreed to respect each other. “Rumours about a schism in the parliamentary four are exaggerated. The quartet exists in at least seven out of eight points discussed at the session, declared Armeni Rustamyan after the session. In his words, there are differences over constitutional reforms: Dashnaktsutyun wants reforms, the others do not. In this aspect, the opinions of all political forces will be respected.
The differences are of a tactical nature. In terms of strategy within the four, there are approaches to the resignation of the president. In particular, ANC and Heritage want the president to leave, Dashnaktsutyun and BHK are more moderate on this issue.
Despite different approaches on some issues, the opposition quarter has a wide platform for realization of a common strategic goal: control over the government’s fulfillment of 12 demands to change the economic course. Should the government fail to comply (this is the most likely scenario), the opposition will take active measures to make the government resign.
Sargsyan wants to prevent demoralization in his ruling partyBy Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik KakvazaPro-government experts and mass media have recently been spreading information about secret ties between the government and the opposition, the weakness of the opposition, and a schism in the ranks of Dashnaktsutyun (ARF), Prosperous Armenia (BHK), Armenian National Congress (ANC) and Heritage. “Judging by the developments on the political field around constitutional reforms, we can suppose that the parliamentary quarter is in crisis, and it is a serious problem,” says Stepan Safaryan, the head of the Institute for International Security Affairs.There are differences within the quartet. Firstly, the differences over appealing the new law on accumulative pensions at the Constitutional Court. Secondly, BHK, ANC and Heritage speaking against the reforms are confident that the upcoming changes were only initiated for government reproduction and will not resolve one of the main problems. Only Dashnaktsutyun wants constitutional changes that would transform the republican from the presidential to the parliamentary-presidential.“If the Constitution remains unchanged, a governance crisis will start. Even within the framework of the current Constitution, if the government wants to reproduce, it will do so. Consequently, thinking that the goal of constitutional reforms is the will to reproduce means to bury the real struggle. Our goal is to use constitutional changes to form a system, including an electoral one, that would not allow the government to reproduce,” says MP Artsvik Minasyan of Dashnaktsutyun.The surprise of some experts and politicians that the quartet has differences seems somewhat strange. It is logical that the different political forces have differences, otherwise they would have formed a united party.During consultations on September 9, the quartet agreed to respect each other. “Rumours about a schism in the parliamentary four are exaggerated. The quartet exists in at least seven out of eight points discussed at the session, declared Armeni Rustamyan after the session. In his words, there are differences over constitutional reforms: Dashnaktsutyun wants reforms, the others do not. In this aspect, the opinions of all political forces will be respected.The differences are of a tactical nature. In terms of strategy within the four, there are approaches to the resignation of the president. In particular, ANC and Heritage want the president to leave, Dashnaktsutyun and BHK are more moderate on this issue.Despite different approaches on some issues, the opposition quarter has a wide platform for realization of a common strategic goal: control over the government’s fulfillment of 12 demands to change the economic course. Should the government fail to comply (this is the most likely scenario), the opposition will take active measures to make the government resi
