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The Heritage Party
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 - 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 - 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website: www.heritage.am
10 February 2011
HERITAGE STATEMENT ON EPP OBSERVER STATUS AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN
ARMENIA
The Heritage Party is pleased to have been granted observer membership
in the European People's Party by decision of its Political Assembly
meeting in Brussels.
Heritage has been an ideological carrier of EPP values from its
inception, and to date has taken consistent part in the activities of
the EPP group at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Euronest, OSCE and elsewhere.
We are encouraged by the opportunities afforded us by the achievement
of observer status, which also is shared by the ruling Republican
Party and its coalition partner the Country of Laws Party.
At the same time we are deeply concerned, on this eve of parliamentary
and presidential elections in our country, by the unprecedented level
of political corruption prevalent here.
In addition to the flagrant examples of conflicts of interest between
public duty and partisan gain as outlined in Heritage chairman Raffi
K. Hovannisian's good-faith letter (http://heritage.am/pr/211111.htm),
dated 21 November 2011, to Republican Party chairman and incumbent
president Serzh Sargsyan, together with his unresponsive outburst in
reaction thereto, the National Assembly--in which all three EPP
observer members are represented--continues to offer haven to
electoral theft and political forgery.
One recurrent episode took place on the very day EPP observer status
was conferred and the three parties acceded to a common declaration of
intentions and principles. In keeping with a long tradition of voting
fraud both at the polls and in parliament, various individuals
representing the EPP-observing coalition, with the conscious assent
and attempted cover-up of the legislature's leadership (again observer
party members), were complicit in the commission of outright
falsification, that is, the unlawful casting of votes in the place of
absent colleagues and in plain view of fellow MPs, journalists, and
the public. On this occasion, the foregoing was done for the
parliamentary majority's illegitimate securing first of a quorum and
then of their desired outcomes on several measures of substance.
In the event of even one further instance of this criminal conduct--in
the National Assembly, at the Presidency, or during the upcoming
elections--the Heritage Party will be unable to reconcile, whether
politically, ethically or otherwise, its participation in the great
family of European parties known as EPP with the presence of those
responsible for such anti-democratic, anti-Armenian, and anti-European
demeanor.
In this connection, but as a matter to be treated separately, we
cannot but express our consternation upon the Armenian prime
minister's recent public endorsement
(http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24478035.html) of a serving
foreign official's candidacy for his country's presidency.
At this critical juncture, we are at once extremely proud of our EPP
belonging and extremely troubled--for Armenia and for all Europe--by
the endless divide between the words and deeds of the Republic's de
facto rulers.
And we so very much regret that this statement has become necessary.
The Heritage Party
10 February 2012
Yerevan
31 Moscovian Street
Yerevan, Armenia
Tel.: (+374 - 10) 53.69.13
Fax: (+374 - 10) 53.26.97
Email: [email protected]; [email protected]
Website: www.heritage.am
10 February 2011
HERITAGE STATEMENT ON EPP OBSERVER STATUS AND POLITICAL CORRUPTION IN
ARMENIA
The Heritage Party is pleased to have been granted observer membership
in the European People's Party by decision of its Political Assembly
meeting in Brussels.
Heritage has been an ideological carrier of EPP values from its
inception, and to date has taken consistent part in the activities of
the EPP group at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe,
Euronest, OSCE and elsewhere.
We are encouraged by the opportunities afforded us by the achievement
of observer status, which also is shared by the ruling Republican
Party and its coalition partner the Country of Laws Party.
At the same time we are deeply concerned, on this eve of parliamentary
and presidential elections in our country, by the unprecedented level
of political corruption prevalent here.
In addition to the flagrant examples of conflicts of interest between
public duty and partisan gain as outlined in Heritage chairman Raffi
K. Hovannisian's good-faith letter (http://heritage.am/pr/211111.htm),
dated 21 November 2011, to Republican Party chairman and incumbent
president Serzh Sargsyan, together with his unresponsive outburst in
reaction thereto, the National Assembly--in which all three EPP
observer members are represented--continues to offer haven to
electoral theft and political forgery.
One recurrent episode took place on the very day EPP observer status
was conferred and the three parties acceded to a common declaration of
intentions and principles. In keeping with a long tradition of voting
fraud both at the polls and in parliament, various individuals
representing the EPP-observing coalition, with the conscious assent
and attempted cover-up of the legislature's leadership (again observer
party members), were complicit in the commission of outright
falsification, that is, the unlawful casting of votes in the place of
absent colleagues and in plain view of fellow MPs, journalists, and
the public. On this occasion, the foregoing was done for the
parliamentary majority's illegitimate securing first of a quorum and
then of their desired outcomes on several measures of substance.
In the event of even one further instance of this criminal conduct--in
the National Assembly, at the Presidency, or during the upcoming
elections--the Heritage Party will be unable to reconcile, whether
politically, ethically or otherwise, its participation in the great
family of European parties known as EPP with the presence of those
responsible for such anti-democratic, anti-Armenian, and anti-European
demeanor.
In this connection, but as a matter to be treated separately, we
cannot but express our consternation upon the Armenian prime
minister's recent public endorsement
(http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/24478035.html) of a serving
foreign official's candidacy for his country's presidency.
At this critical juncture, we are at once extremely proud of our EPP
belonging and extremely troubled--for Armenia and for all Europe--by
the endless divide between the words and deeds of the Republic's de
facto rulers.
And we so very much regret that this statement has become necessary.
The Heritage Party
10 February 2012
Yerevan