A1 Plus reports that Orinats Yerkir is pulling out of the three-party coalition government in Armenia. The move comes after its leader Artur Baghdasarian reportedly angered President Robert Kocharian by suggesting that the 2003 presidential election was falsified and that Armenia’s future direction lies in integration with European and NATO structures.

Parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian on Tuesday stood by his reported calls for Armenia’s eventual accession to NATO, contradicting official Yerevan’s foreign policy and prompting criticism from his coalition partners.

Baghdasarian stressed that he would rather pull his Orinats Yerkir Party out of the governing coalition than disavow bombshell statements which were attributed to him by a leading German newspaper.

“Armenia’s future lies in the European Union and NATO,” “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” quoted him as saying in an interview published on April 19. He added that “Russia must not stand in our way to Europe.”

[…]

Kocharian likewise said through a spokesman last week that he is “surprised” with Baghdasarian’s statements. Kocharian must also be unhappy with the speaker’s implicit remark, also made in the German newspaper interview, that Armenia’s 2003 presidential and presidential elections were rigged.

However, A1 Plus says that there are other issues involved.

Late in the evening the enlarged session of the political council of the party “Orinats Yerkir” adopted a decision to quit the coalition. This presupposes the resignation of Arthur Baghdasaryan from the post of the RA NA President. The decision was made unanimously: all the nine members of the political council voted for it.

More than 40 members of the administration of the party also participated in the session. According to the official statement, their main disagreement with their colleagues from the coalition was not only their approach towards the 2001-2003 privatization program but also their concern about the privatization of the Metsamor nuclear power station.

The coalition memorandum presupposes that the structure leaving the coalition must call back all its members in the government, that’s to say all the Ministers will resign too.

Tomorrow at 02:00 PM Arthur Baghdasaryan will render a press conference to inform details about his resignation and the decision of the party.

Earlier in the day, RFE/RL reported that such a move was on the cards, and not least since it has been reported that Kocharian has been seeking to punish Baghdasarian for his remarks and growing independence within a government that is merely one in name only under the direct control of the president.

The way in which Kocharian is seeking to punish Baghdasarian and Orinats Yerkir also illustrates how political corruption functions in Armenia.

Three more wealthy lawmakers defected from Orinats Yerkir late Wednesday and early Thursday, reducing to 11 the number of parliament seats controlled by Baghdasarian. His party had 20 seats as recently as last month, boasting the second largest faction in the 131-member National Assembly.

The wave of defections, which began last week, is reportedly part of President Robert Kocharian’s efforts to force Orinats Yerkir out of the ruling coalition. Government sources have said Kocharian has lost patience with its 37-year-old leader’s regular and embarrassing attacks on his cabinet.

[…]

All of the defectors are wealthy businessmen with close government connections, a necessary condition for engaging in large-scale economic activity in Armenia. Yet another Orinats Yerkir deputy, Tigran Yeganian, was expected to follow their example later on Thursday. Yeganian, 28, is the youngest member of the National Assembly. His father is the owner of a big and expensive restaurant near Yerevan which is popular with senior government officials.

Bisharian stopped short of explicitly blaming the defections on Kocharian. But she did deplore the strong dependence of Armenian businessmen on the government. “Regardless of whether a businessman is a member of Orinats Yerkir, a Republican or a Dashnak, they are facing this danger [of losing their assets],” she said. “This could happen to any political force and businessman.”

Baghdasarian, popular in European circles and especially among the political elite in France, is no stranger to incurring the wrath of his government partners. In April 2004 when the state security apparatus came down hard on opposition supporters in central Yerevan, Baghdasarian departed from the official line by criticizing the heavy handed action of riot police in the early hours of 13 April.

Parliament speaker Artur Baghdasarian criticized on Friday the Armenian government’s continuing crackdown on the opposition and made what appeared to be a last-ditch attempt to avert another violent confrontation between the two mutually hostile camps.

“You just can’t open a criminal case against a political party. I don’t know what opposition actions provoked it,” Baghdasarian, referring to the ongoing criminal investigation into the opposition Artarutyun bloc’s campaign for President Robert Kocharian’s resignation.

Several senior members of the alliance, including former Defense Minister Vagharshak Harutiunian, have been arrested and charged with calling for a “violent overthrow of constitutional order” and “publicly insulting” senior government officials as part of the inquiry.

“The guillotine is not the best means of treating dandruff,” Baghdasarian said. He specifically denounced police raids on the offices of major opposition parties following the violent dispersal of the April 13 overnight street protest in Yerevan.

While Orinats Yerkir has been no stranger to controversy in the past, its possible move from government to opposition certainly opens up the possibility for a real battle as 2007 approaches with political figures such as Raffi Hovhannisyan, Aram Sargsyan and now Baghdasarian offering a real alternative to those who represent nothing but corruption to most Armenians.

Indeed, some would argue that as the 2007 parliamentary election approaches and more new pro-government parties are created, this is perhaps the last chance for Armenia to follow a genuine path of democratization. On the same day that Orinats Yerkir apparently decided to quit the coalition, for example, came news of yet another new pro-government party setting its sights on the National Assembly.

To be totally frank, such parties can only come to power through vote-buying, intimidation and outright falsification.

A new pro-establishment party which is reputedly sponsored by Armenia’s influential Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian revealed on Thursday far-reaching political ambitions, saying it will seek to win next year’s parliamentary election and enter the government.

[…]

Similar ambitions are harbored by another pro-establishment party that was unveiled in January by one of Armenia’s richest businessmen, Gagik Tsarukian. The Prosperous Armenia Party has already enlisted thousands of public sector employees and other people in Tsarukian’s de facto fiefdom that encompasses the town of Abovian and surrounding villages. However, the oligarch is far less influential in other parts of Armenia.

Interesting days, and I’m told by some foreign workers here that the West will not tolerate another set of falsified elections in Armenia. I can only hope that’s the case because the alternative is unthinkable and the beginning of the end.