Today the Armenian government was officially headed by Yerevan’s ex-major, the deputy director general for strategy and development of the Armenian subsidiary of Gazprom, Karen Karapetyan, in accordance with the promises of President Serzh Sargsyan, who recently announced the formation of the republic’s ‘national consensus government’. It is expected that changes will occur in the ministerial lineup. According to the Armenian media, the Minister of Agriculture, Sergo Karapetyan, the Minister of Health, Armen Muradyan, and the Minister of Defense, Seyran Ohanyan, may leave their positions.
Vestnik Kavkaza asked Russian experts what has caused the changes in the Armenian government, and what the policies of the new Cabinet will be.
The director of the Institute of Political Studies, Sergei Markov, said that it is fairly obvious that the government changes are associated with the crisis of the authorities. "The leadership of Armenia is experiencing dual pressure. Firstly, it needs to move forward with a settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, but it is afraid to move in this direction. Secondly, it is experiencing terrorist pressure from inside, I mean, first of all, the seizure of the building of the PPS regiment in Erebuni. These processes have led to a change, but who exactly will take the responsible positions and how the policy may change is difficult to say,’’ the expert said.
In his turn, the researcher of the Institute of USA and Canada, Gevorg Mirzayan, also noted that it is difficult to say what changes are awaiting Armenia's cabinet of ministers. "Here it is necessary to look at the series of resignations. It is clear that the consequences of the April aggravation in Karabakh, as well as the situation with the capture of the PPS regiment buildings in Yerevan, have become major challenges for the authorities, showing that it is necessary to do something and to renew themselves somehow.’’
