Parisian Arguments

The statements made by the leader of Prosperous Armenia Party Gagik Tsarukyan against Nerses Yeritsyan, RA Minister of Economy, should be considered within the context of internal governmental conflicts. The statements in question were indeed not made incidentally and were obviously developed within Robert Kocharyan’s team. Tsarukyan first made the statement about Yeritsyan on Friday, оn Shant TV; which was followed by a short news article published in one of the Saturday newspapers. However, that statement didn’t get appropriate political feedback. People perhaps thought, “This is Gago talking “dod-dod”, and there is no need to pay special attention to it.” But on Monday, Tsarukyan gathered reporters around him and made the same announcement in a cruder manner, thereby confirming that the statement made on Shant TV was not an incidental one, but the result of a political decision. This fact places Tsarukyan’s statement in the context of Serzh Sargsyan-Robert Kocharyan argument at the end of last week in one of the hotels in Paris where Kocharyan demanded that Sargsyan appoint him Prime Minister of Armenia. It is evident that Tsarukyan’s aim is to continue the argument (started in Paris), because Yeritsyan had made the announcement about having overcome the economic crisis weeks ago and indeed, there was no need to go back to it. However, the problem here is quite different: Kocharyan uses the economic crisis as a basis for his ambition to become Prime Minister. Supposedly, Tigran Sargsyan with his team was not able to deal with the crisis and now the situation is out of their control, and they don’t understand the economic situation. This means that the existence of this government, just in terms of economy, is fraught with new collapses. In other words, Kocharyan is not getting into a direct confrontation with Serzh Sargsyan, but wants to demonstrate that his problem is with Tigran Sargsyan and his government. This is the obvious part of the problem. In reality, however, it is necessary to understand why Kocharyan started to criticize the economic bloc of Serzh’s government in the person of PAP leader just now. I think the reason is quite clear; Kocharyan thinks that at this moment Serzh Sargsyan is weaker than ever and criticism by PAP would cause him to panic. According to Kocharyan’s calculations, Sargsyan is afraid of the possibility that coalition colleague PAP may become the opposition, which means that similar announcements will enable Kocharyan to push Serzh Sargsyan for more concessions. And in fact, the first response of the Republican Party of Armenia to Tsarukyan’s statement was very timid, from which can be deduced that Kocharyan’s calculations are being realized. However, the situation changed immediately when Nerses Yeritsyan reacted to Tsarukyan’s announcement from Germany and completely neglected the PAP leader. It is obvious, however, that Yeritsyan does not have enough political pull to make such an announcement. It is also obvious that the real author of Yeritsyan’s response is Serzh Sargsyan himself. Regardless, PAP representatives in their turn touched on the issue of the necessity of Yeritsyan’s resignation, although it is not clear if they realize that these types of statements may be interpreted as a demand for Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation. At the moment, it is difficult to guess future developments. But if the Kocharyan-Sargsyan Paris argument continues, it will have several possible outcomes: Kocharyan will become Prime Minister; Tsarukyan will become bankrupt; or, the situation will be frozen. By the way, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that following the Paris argument, Serzh Sargsyan fired the two of OYK ministers, leaving the three of PAP ministers in sectarian roles. After that, Artur Baghdasaryan made a vow of fidelity to Serzh Sargsyan, thus becoming the second in this regard after Hovik Abrahamyan. In effect, the only governmental power which has not announced its support of Serzh Sargsyan for the next Presidential elections is Prosperous Armenia. Nikol Pashinyan www.nikol.am

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