The list of the ministers to be nominated by ARF was submitted to the president almost one week ago. Yesterday, in one week after this list was submitted president Serzh Sargsyan signed decrees on appointing ministers nominated by ARF. Before these appointments the politicians and people were discussing the issue of replacing the ARF ministers (definitely this issue will be discussed more).
To note, the ARF has explained this fact by reasoning that during the recent 30th congress of the ARF bureau in Tsakhkadzor the mentioned ex-ministers were elected board members, thus they had to resign from office. Member of the ARF bureau Hrant Margaryan says that it is their own decision, but admits that it is also a requirement of the party charter. “They prefer being a member of the bureau than having minister’s positions. Accordingly, they resigned in order to be able to carry out their duties in a duly manner,” says Hrant Margaryan. However, there are rumors that these are not the real reasons why the ministers resigned. There have been two versions and according to these rumors with this step the ARF wanted to show to the authorities that they may disobey the decisions of the team at any time and undermine their plans. (By the way, there is a small detail too: according to the Constitution the candidacies of ministers are to be nominated by the prime-minister, but this time the candidates were nominated by the ARF supreme bureau). According to another version, these changes have been planned beforehand and the president knew about it. In other words, the incumbent president wanted to get rid of the ministers of Kocharyan’s office. Anyway, this step on the part of the ARF is still unclear to the society. Even more, these ministers were re-appointed in their positions just about two months ago. If Serzh Sargsyan did not want to work with them, he could raise that issue before the government would be formed. Furthermore, unpredictable resignation of the three ministers could have a negative affect on the overall performance of the government. This point mainly concerns the ministry of education and science because the entrance exams period has not finished yet. Yesterday we asked different political powers what they think about the surprising resignation of the ARF representatives from ministers’ positions.
“Those appointments are usually done within the framework of the coalition agreement and ministers are appointed by parties. The ARF has already explained that the mentioned three members have been elected bureau members and they can’t continue being in office any more,” says RPA deputy chairman Galust Sahakyan. Answering to a question whether the replacement of three ministers will not affect the overall performance of the government Galust Sahakyan said, “Ministers are not born in office, and after their replacement the political direction doesn’t change either because the staff of the government should have been formed before that if they had certain plans for the future. These are political positions and after these appointments neither the overall performance of the government nor the work of the entire team will suffer.”
Prosperous Armenia party faction secretary Aram Safaryan refused to comment on this fact and only said that he knows only Spartak Seyranyan well and thinks that he has good merits and will do well. “It is up to the society to decide who is competent or not,” Aram Safaryan said.
Member of the parliamentary opposition, the Heritage party, Armen Martirosyan refused to comment either and said that he was concerned about this fact. “The entrance exams have started already and I am afraid that it will take long for the new minister to get adapted,” Mr. Martirosyan said.
As for the opposition powers which are not represented in the parliament, they have different opinions about the behavior of the ARF. “I think they had some inner problems. They say that they can’t do two jobs at one time. If so, how did Vahan Hovhannisyan do that while he was vice-speaker meantime? I don’t think that the vice-speaker’s position was less important than the minister’s position. Besides that, the ARF representatives said that the bureau has a lot to do in 32 countries. Definitely the law on political parties does not work in Armenia. How can an Armenian citizen interfere with the affairs of other countries or the vice versa, how can citizens of other countries who are members of the ARF interfere with the affairs of our country when forming the government?” says PPA member Grigor Harutyunyan. Member of Republic party political board Suren Surenyants offers three versions concerning these replacements. “The ARF has proven one more time that it does not respect the Armenian statehood. The proof is the fact that people who don’t have Armenian citizenship solved issues connected with the government. Second, the three ministers might have become too much familiar with the government system and ceased to be reliable for the ARF leadership. Accordingly, the ARF sent new people to the government in order to control the organizational and financial procedures. Third, I don’t exclude the possibility that the ARF and Serzh Sargsyan might have agreed this beforehand. In other words, maybe the new president does not want to work with ministers who have worked during Kocharyan’s tenure,” says S. Surenyants. He says that he knows Arsen Hambardzumyan well. “He used to be a principal person when he was a student, but I don’t know how he may behave himself now. Besides that, they are going to work in such a bad system that unlike their skills they will not be so successful,” says S. Surenyants.
Hardly the ARF may agree with such explanations. Even more, the ARF is interested in such issues not due to the ongoing political processes, but due to their long-term goals. Specifically, the ARF leaders think that by taking those three ministers to their bureau they will strengthen the organizational capacity of their party. The ARF bureau wants to show that the most powerful political potential of the ARF is in Armenia. Besides that, taking those three people to the bureau, who are not disliked by the society, shows that the ARF needs in them more as important implementers of their policies. Ultimately, this step is like a message inside their party to the members that any new member of the ARF may be nominated for minister’s position by the party. Such policy is considered an important method for recruiting professional in the ARF.