The appointment of Hovik Abrahamyan as prime minister aims to tie Prosperous Armenia Party's (PAP) hand and foot, Deputy Head of Heritage Party Armen Martirosyan said at today's press conference.
Martirosyan thinks that given the family ties between Abrahamyan and PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan and, subsequently, the new Prime Minister's influence on his son's father-in-law, the authorities will try to control the PAP with Abrahamyan's help. In the meantime, Martirosyan is skeptical about the PAP's possible joining the ruling coalition. He stressed that now the PAP should exert serious efforts not to yield to the authorities' influence and to complete the work initiated by the 4 non-coalition forces of the Parliament.
If the 4 non-coalition forces are passive, Armenia may have the most unfavorable scenarios of development of the socio-political and economic life. "The thing is that by getting rid of the "reformer" Tigran Sargsyan and replacing him by Hovik Abrahamyan, one of the brightest representatives of the incumbent regime, Serzh Sargsyan has closed the circle. If the authorities take advantage of the opposition's passiveness and strengthen their position, we will see the first bitter fruits of the current processes within the next 2-3 months", said Martirosyan. When asked how the situation may deteriorate after the Government's decisions taken over the past months and years, Martirosyan replied that the population of the country may decline to 1.5 mln, for instance.