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SHOWDOWN: PAP-RPA TRADE BARBS AHEAD OF CAPITAL ELECTION
POLITICS | 04.04.13 | 15:50
Photolure
Eduard Sharmazanov, Tigran Urikhanayn
By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
As Yerevan city council elections approach passions have flared up,
voiced in sharp criticism and insults, between the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia and its once coalitional partner Prosperous Armenia.
While the senior members of these two parties show more restrained
behavior, younger members have taken up the fight in what one of
the leading local newspaper's editor-in-chief has termed the "young
wings' stardom".
Similar tension grew between the two parties in 2012, prior to
the parliamentary elections, when PAP was still part of the ruling
coalition.
The lead part in the RPA-PAP battles is PAP spokesman, MP Tigran
Urikhanayn who voiced criticism from the parliamentary rostrum against
current mayor Taron Margaryan, topping the RPA list in the city council
elections, in particular pointing out the municipality's "pointless"
expenses, which do not alleviate Yerevan residents' burden.
"Co-starring" is RPA spokesman, parliament vice-speaker Eduard
Sharmazanov, who said that "RPA and PAP are in different weight
categories."
And yet the Republicans are especially quick in their response to
the Facebook posts by Vartan Oskanian, topping the PAP list for the
municipal elections. Oskanian talks about the issues challenging the
Armenian capital and makes suggestions on possible solutions.
Young Republican MP Karen Avagyan responding to Oskanian's Facebook
posts asked the former foreign minister why he did not apply his
"environmental ambitions and urban development taste" when he was a
government member and according to Avagyan it is during those years
that Yerevan's architectural exterior was being distorted.
Sharmazanov, in turn, accused PAP on Wednesday of abandoning its
electorate.
"PAP, taking away the votes of the oppositional electorate, voicing
sharp criticism of the ruling administration, promising big changes
to voters, and then not participating in the country's most crucial
political process, such as the presidential elections, has disappointed
its voters by leaving its electorate up to the whims of fate, after
which it had no right to participate, for example, in the Yerevan
city hall election," said Sharmazanov.
While some analysts believe RPA-PAP confrontation is just a show,
Edgar Vardanyan, expert at the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies, regards this tension as a "clan confrontation"
conditioned by re-distribution of resources.
"It is not like the confrontation is fictional, not that it is a
'theatre', it does exist. Meaning that from time to time when
opportunities are created for re-distribution of resources these
groups or clans start a showdown trying to pocket as much as possible.
It mostly starts prior to elections, then subsides for a while. Then
each within the limits of their resources continue their activities,
keep their presence in the country's political and economic fields,"
says the expert, adding that it is not accidental that PAP has never
called itself opposition.
"They say they are an alternative, but it is because they are, in fact,
alternative to one ruling group, meaning they have their place in the
general oligarchic framework and in that field one group is competing
with the other," says Vardanyan.
From: A. Papazian
POLITICS | 04.04.13 | 15:50
Photolure
Eduard Sharmazanov, Tigran Urikhanayn
By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN
ArmeniaNow reporter
As Yerevan city council elections approach passions have flared up,
voiced in sharp criticism and insults, between the ruling Republican
Party of Armenia and its once coalitional partner Prosperous Armenia.
While the senior members of these two parties show more restrained
behavior, younger members have taken up the fight in what one of
the leading local newspaper's editor-in-chief has termed the "young
wings' stardom".
Similar tension grew between the two parties in 2012, prior to
the parliamentary elections, when PAP was still part of the ruling
coalition.
The lead part in the RPA-PAP battles is PAP spokesman, MP Tigran
Urikhanayn who voiced criticism from the parliamentary rostrum against
current mayor Taron Margaryan, topping the RPA list in the city council
elections, in particular pointing out the municipality's "pointless"
expenses, which do not alleviate Yerevan residents' burden.
"Co-starring" is RPA spokesman, parliament vice-speaker Eduard
Sharmazanov, who said that "RPA and PAP are in different weight
categories."
And yet the Republicans are especially quick in their response to
the Facebook posts by Vartan Oskanian, topping the PAP list for the
municipal elections. Oskanian talks about the issues challenging the
Armenian capital and makes suggestions on possible solutions.
Young Republican MP Karen Avagyan responding to Oskanian's Facebook
posts asked the former foreign minister why he did not apply his
"environmental ambitions and urban development taste" when he was a
government member and according to Avagyan it is during those years
that Yerevan's architectural exterior was being distorted.
Sharmazanov, in turn, accused PAP on Wednesday of abandoning its
electorate.
"PAP, taking away the votes of the oppositional electorate, voicing
sharp criticism of the ruling administration, promising big changes
to voters, and then not participating in the country's most crucial
political process, such as the presidential elections, has disappointed
its voters by leaving its electorate up to the whims of fate, after
which it had no right to participate, for example, in the Yerevan
city hall election," said Sharmazanov.
While some analysts believe RPA-PAP confrontation is just a show,
Edgar Vardanyan, expert at the Armenian Center for National and
International Studies, regards this tension as a "clan confrontation"
conditioned by re-distribution of resources.
"It is not like the confrontation is fictional, not that it is a
'theatre', it does exist. Meaning that from time to time when
opportunities are created for re-distribution of resources these
groups or clans start a showdown trying to pocket as much as possible.
It mostly starts prior to elections, then subsides for a while. Then
each within the limits of their resources continue their activities,
keep their presence in the country's political and economic fields,"
says the expert, adding that it is not accidental that PAP has never
called itself opposition.
"They say they are an alternative, but it is because they are, in fact,
alternative to one ruling group, meaning they have their place in the
general oligarchic framework and in that field one group is competing
with the other," says Vardanyan.
From: A. Papazian