New ruling coalition formed in Armenia
YEREVAN, March 21. /ARKA/. A new ruling coalition has been formed in Armenia by the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), Prospering Armenia, Orinats Yerkir party and Dashnaktsutiun. The agreement on establishing a quadripartite coalition was signed by the Prime-Minister, President-Elect leader of RPA Serge Sargsian, leader of Prospering Armenia Gagik Tsarukian, leader of Orinats Yerkir Arthur Baghdasarian and member of Executive Board of ARF Dashnaktsutiun Armen Rustamian.
The coalition agreement sets objectives of the coalition, principles of activity and program provisions.
“We have signed an agreement on political coalition – it is an unprecedented event, as the previous coalition agreements in Armenia were being signed around formation of a cabinet.
Today we created a political coalition with an objective to implement reforms in the country and perform most very serious changes,” Sargsian said after the signing. According to him, the changes will be large-scale and painful to many people.
"In order to implement the changes to the full we need serious public support: for this and for the purpose of consolidation we have signed this document,” Sargsian said.
After the parliamentary elections in June 2007, RPA and Prospering Armenia signed an agreement on establishing a coalition, which, in its turn, concluded an agreement on cooperation with ARF Dashnaktsutiun.
After the presidential elections of February 19, ARF Dashnaktsutiun expressed readiness to abdicate, for political reasons, from the government posts it has under the agreement with political coalition. Member of ARF Dashnaktsutiun Bureau Vahan Hovhannisian has already resigned from the position of Vice-Speaker of the Parliament for violations occurred in the course of the presidential elections.
Meanwhile, on March 13 Armenia’s Prime-Minister Serge Sargsian made a statement that Armenian Revolutionary Federation Dashnaktsutiun will take part in the country’s coalition cabinet. On February 29, “Orinats Yerkir” party officially joined the ruling coalition. –0--
