During a recent visit to Tavush region president Serzh Sargsyan commented on the rumors concerning the possible resignation of prime minister Tigran Sargsyan. “These rumors are baseless. I am not going to replace the PM or the government. There were such rumors when the economy was falling by 15, 16 and 17 per cent, and there are rumors now too, even though these rumors are more now, I understand it. In other words if there was economic slump, there was a reason to think that our economic policy was not good and competent enough to resist the crisis, or at least could not foresee that there would be global financial crisis. Maybe at that time there was no reason for such rumors. What is the point of speaking of changing the economic team now when the economy is recovering? If you mean the replacement of several members of the government, it is a permanent process. Ministers can always be replaced and it has nothing to do with the economic policy or the team.” The president also commented on the rumors concerning former president Kocharyan’s return to politics and said that he does not see anything wrong in the visits and announcements of Kocharyan as he has not left politics. The president’s announcement about the rumors on the replacement of the PM was definitely addressed at those spreading rumors for the purpose of opening a way for Kocharyan to return to politics and get the position of the prime minister. The president’s statement saying that “there is no reason to speak of replacing the economic team if the economy is recovering” is a message proving this point too. About three weeks ago Robert Kocharyan came up with an announcement criticizing the implemented economic policy and recommended to encourage the construction in case when the official statistics reported that the economy had started recovering.
