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Prosecutor-General Again Denies Links With New Party

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  • Prosecutor-General Again Denies Links With New Party

    PROSECUTOR-GENERAL AGAIN DENIES LINKS WITH NEW PARTY
    By Karine Kalantarian

    Radio Liberty, Czech Rep
    June 1 2006

    Prosecutor-General Aghvan Hovsepian insisted on Thursday that he
    was not behind the recent creation of a new political party that has
    staked a claim to a role in Armenia's next government to be formed
    after next year's parliamentary election.

    "I have said repeatedly that I am not engaged in party building," he
    said. "You may say something once and everyone will understand. But
    you may say something for ten times and not everyone will understand."

    Hovsepian was commenting on allegations by a top leader of the
    governing Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun),
    Hrant Markarian, that he is illegally sponsoring the Association for
    Armenia party. Some of the party's leaders have close ties with the
    influential prosecutor.

    "The current prosecutor of the Republic of Armenia has no right to
    create a party. Neither directly, nor indirectly," Markarian told the
    newspaper "Iravunk" last week. He repeated his view in an interview
    with RFE/RL on Tuesday.

    Markarian also accused Hovsepian of behaving like a "feudal ruler"
    of the central Aragatsotn province which is governed by a member
    of Dashnaktsutyun. Reports in the Dashnaktsutyun-controlled media
    have said the Prosecutor-General's Office has conducted politically
    motivated inspections of local government agencies and schools in
    recent weeks.

    One of the Aragatsotn districts, Aparan, is known as the stronghold of
    Hovsepian's Nig-Aparan organization uniting prominent natives of the
    area. The Association for Armenia plans to make a strong showing there.

    "The people know well who is who," Hovsepian told RFE/RL after
    inaugurating a new U.S.-funded forensic laboratory of Armenia's
    law-enforcement bodies. He refused to answer more questions.
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