Businessman Gagik Tsarukian will not lose his parliament seat after all, despite having rarely attended sessions of the National Assembly, speaker Galust Sahakian said on Thursday.
The announcement came two weeks after Tsarukian resigned as leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), the second largest parliamentary force, and said he is retiring from politics. The move followed his defeat in a standoff with President Serzh Sarkisian.
Sarkisian told the parliament leadership on February 12 to consider stripping the tycoon of his seat because of chronic absenteeism. He also ordered law-enforcement authorities to investigate tax evasion and other “crimes” possibly committed by Tsarukian. The BHK leader capitulated in the following days, saying that he will stop challenging the government to avoid bloodshed in Armenia.
Sahakian told reporters that he has received written explanations from Tsarukian and concluded that his absences from the parliament were “justified.” He said he consulted with National Assembly lawyers before making the decision.
Tsarukian’s spokeswoman, Iveta Tonoyan, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am) that the tycoon’s retirement also means that he has also pulled out of the BHK’s faction in the 131-member parliament.
The faction has shrunk from 36 to 24 members since the launch of the government crackdown on the influential party. The BHK spokesman, Vahan Babayan, expressed confidence that there will be no more defections from its ranks.
Meanwhile, the new BHK leadership underscored the dramatic change of its fortunes on Thursday when it declared that the party, which threatened to topple Sarkisian as recently as last month, will now be in “constructive opposition” to the government. “We will continue to not only decry things that are bad but also name good things,” said Stepan Markarian, a senior BHK figure.
Mikael Melkumian, another member of the party’s governing body, said the BHK will not push for regime change or demand the resignation of top government officials. It will prepare instead for the next parliamentary elections due in 2017, he said.