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Coalition Partner Leaves Armenian Government Over Deal With Turkey

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  • Coalition Partner Leaves Armenian Government Over Deal With Turkey

    COALITION PARTNER LEAVES ARMENIAN GOVERNMENT OVER DEAL WITH TURKEY
    by Natalia Leshchenko

    World Markets Research Centre
    Global Insight
    April 28, 2009

    The junior partner in the Armenian government, Armenian Revolutionary
    Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) pulled out of the coalition yesterday over
    quot;insurmountable fundamental disagreementsquot; with President Serzh
    Sarkisian over his policy of improving ties with Turkey. In particular,
    they fear the government will make compromises over the massacre of
    Armenians in 1915 and the Nagorny Karabakh conflict. The party returned
    three ministerial posts it held: agriculture, education and labour,
    and withdrew its members from parliamentary committee positions saying
    it will operate as a fully-fledged opposition party from now on. The
    three other parties comprising the Armenian government defended the
    policy of reconciliation with Turkey.

    Significance:Dashnaktsutyun is a strongly nationalist party, and an
    agreement with Turkey will deprive it of much of its raison d'etre,
    hence the reaction is not unexpected. If not for the subject of the
    disagreement itself, the transfer into opposition would be a healthy
    move for Armenia's political system. Currently all the parties
    represented in the parliament are also present in the government,
    a design meant to claim popular legitimacy of the parliament and the
    cabinet. This is now breached, as the government will face genuine
    opposition in the legislature. However, the subject of disagreement
    is an arguably healthy development; the recently adopted roadmap
    to reconciliation with Turkey is something both countries would
    benefit from economically. The staunch non-compromising position of
    Dashnaktsutyun which Armenia has pursued since the 1990s has not yet
    led to any positive or feasible results. Dashnaktsutyun's opposition
    will certainly take away some energy from the Armenian government but
    by itself should not interrupt the reconciliation process altogether.
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