 YEREVAN
(RFE/RL)–Raffi Hovannisian, the leader of a major Armenian
opposition party, has decided to end his membership in the
country’s parliament, a senior party source said on Monday.
The source, who asked not to be identified,
declined to comment on reasons for the unexpected move, saying
that Hovannisian himself will explain his motives in the coming
days. The spokesman for his Heritage party, Hovsep Khurshudian,
refused to confirm or refute the resignation.
A former U.S. citizen, Hovannisian, 50,
relocated to Armenia from California with his family in 1990 and
served as the newly independent country’s first foreign minister
in 1992. He founded Heritage in 2002 and remains its top leader
despite holding no formal positions in the party leadership at
present.
Heritage won seven seats in Armenia’s
131-member National Assembly in the last parliamentary elections
held in May 2007. The party tried unsuccessfully to earn an
extra seat when he contested an August 2007 repeat election in a
single-mandate constituency in central Armenia.
Heritage chose to support former President
Levon Ter-Petrosian in the February 2008 presidential election
after Hovannisian was controversially disqualified from the
race. The party has increasingly distanced itself from
Ter-Petrosian’s Armenian National Congress over the past year.
In an early July statement, Heritage said it has decided to act
more independently in the political arena after failing to get
Armenia’s leading opposition forces to join forces.
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