From: Justin Burke (JBurke@sorosny.org)
Date: Mon Jun 17 2002 - 10:20:23 EDT
Armenian opposition vows to pursue impeachment debate in autumn
Text of report by Armenian news agency Arminfo
Yerevan, 15 June: In preventing the inclusion of the question of impeaching
the president on the parliamentary agenda, the leadership of the Armenian
National Assembly with the help of the country's authorities and the
parliamentary majority, the Republican Party, is crudely flouting the law
on regulation of the National Assembly and constitutional norms, a
statement by the Anrapetutyun [Republic] Party says, which was read out
today by the party's chairman, Albert Bazeyan, at the Azdak discussion
club.
The statement said the actions of National Assembly Chairman Armen
Khachatryan exceeded his official powers, for which the speaker should bear
responsibility under Article 183 of the Criminal Code. The statement's
authors think that, by flouting the very laws that they have passed,
representatives of the legislative authority are threatening the country's
international authority.
The statement says that the ruling regime, in avoiding an open discussion of
the causes and consequences of the terrorist attack in the Armenian
parliament on 27 October 1999, is indirectly acknowledging its involvement
in the crime. The statement stresses that the illegitimate ruling regime
has exhausted itself and only a change in power will bring the country out
of the social and economic crisis that has been created.
Bazeyan also said that the 13 opposition forces would in future remain
consistent in establishing the supremacy of the law in the country and
having the issue of impeaching the head of state included on the agenda of
the autumn session of the National Assembly.
He stressed that there was a range of reasons for conducting the procedure
to impeach the head of state. He said that the president's actions had
several times infringed constitutional norms and the country's laws.
Specifically, Bazeyan accused the president of indirectly assisting the
terrorist attack in the Armenian parliament on 27 October 1999. He said
that certain circles in the National Security Ministry had an interest in
the terrorist attack, while the head of state himself, as the guarantor of
security, should have taken control of the activity of the security bodies
and in this way averted the 27 October terrorist attack. Bazeyan thought
that the atmosphere of irresponsibility prevailing in the republic before
the terrorist attack and the dozens of unsolved political crimes had been a
precondition for a crime on such a scale.
Source: Arminfo, Yerevan, in Russian 1040 gmt 15 Jun 02
BBC Mon TCU 150602 at
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