The internal political life of Armenia has been paralyzed for over a week now. Everybody is waiting impatiently for the RPA candidate names for the post of the mayor and the minister of justice and secondly the possibility of some new resignations, the rumors of which had been spread not only by governmental circles. Yesterday’s executive session of the RPA didn’t bring any clarity either. The most probable candidate for the RPA for the post of mayor is considered the general director of ArmRusGazArd Karen Karapetyan. Hardly anyone doubts his appointment to this post but this news is not officially publicized yet. Yesterday rumors were spread that the post of the minister of justice will be submitted by a constitution expert Hrair Tovmasyan. Some RPA members were even insisting that the decree of his appointment had already been signed. But there was no clarification around this matter either. Now they are expecting that things will be clarified after today’s session of the RPA. Or perhaps not… The impression is that the government intentionally creates and develops this intriguing, mysterious and semi-secret environment. Moreover, all the decisions were made at the President’s office by Serzh Sargsyan and even the RPA members openly publicize in an open text that all the posts will be occupied by the people, who are mentioned by the president. It means that all these party sessions and meetings are additional formalities, which in fact even more intensify the panicking moods. In the first place, this tension is proliferated by the rumors on new possible resignations. Specifically, according to these rumors the head of the penitentiaries department of the Ministry of Justice Hayk Harutyunyan will be dismissed from his post and appointed governor for Gegharkunik marz. The former head of the mentioned department Ashot Martirosyan will be re-appointed to his post. The latter was fired because of some scandalous story. According to trustful sources finally the head of the chief regiment of the armed forces Yuri Khachaturov will be released. He will be replaced by the current commander of the internal forces of RA police Garegin Gabrielyan. It is also considered possible that a range of new resignations may take place closer to the beginning of the next year. Specifically they are discussing the possibility of resignation of the governors of Syunik and Lori marzes Surik Khachatryan and Aram Kocharyan. And the resignation of the head of the compulsory service Mihran Poghsoayn and the head of the social security service Vazgen Khachikyan is a matter of days according to governmental circles. It would be interesting to conduct social polls to find out to what extent the efficiency (if it ever existed) of the work of the Armenian government has lowered during these several days and see the figures received as a result. It would be worth to order a freelance research from Populus if certain changes don’t take place in the leadership of this organization.
