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YEREVAN (RFE/RL)–President
Serzh Sarkisian appointed on Tuesday Armenia’s new ministers of
education, labor and agriculture in place of three members of
the Armenian Revolutionary Federation who resigned following the
party’s withdrawal from the ruling coalition.
The ARF announced the exit
late last month, citing “insurmountable disagreements” with
Sarkisian over his conciliatory policy toward Turkey. All senior
government officials affiliated with it tendered their
resignations as a result.
The ARF has said that
Sarkisian is jeopardizing Armenia’s national security with his
diplomatic overtures to Turkey, which is exploiting the
negotiations process to become an actor in the Nagorno-Karabakh
peace talks and to deter the United States from officially
recognizing the Armenian Genocide.
The new ministers
represent the three other parties remaining in Armenia’s
coalition government. The most famous of them, Armen Ashotian,
is a senior member of Sarkisian’s Republican Party who has until
now headed the Armenian parliament’s committee on education,
culture and youth affairs. Ashotian, 33, will now serve as
minister of science and education.
The vacant post of
minister of labor and social affairs was given to the Republican
Party’s largest coalition partner, the Prosperous Armenia Party.
Its new holder, Gevorg Petrosian, was a senior official at the
parliament’s Audit Chamber before the appointment. Petrosian,
36, joined Prosperous Armenia in 2006.
The newly appointed
agriculture minister, Gerasim Alaverdian, also worked at the
Audit Chamber until now. Alaverdian, 44, is a member of the
Orinats Yerkir Party, the third coalition partner.
Sarkisian and his allies
have yet to fill other vacancies left by the ARF. Those include
about a dozen posts of deputy minister. They are expected to be
distributed among the Republicans, Prosperous Armenia, and
Country of Law.
“We will discuss the issue
other vacant posts in a few days’ time,” Galust Sahakian, a
Republican deputy chairman, told RFE/RL.
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