NA SPEAKER BAGDASARIAN FORMALLY RESIGNS

UNCLAS YEREVAN 000696 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR EUR/CARC AND DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL AM SUBJECT: NA SPEAKER BAGDASARIAN FORMALLY RESIGNS REF: YEREVAN 662 Sensitive but unclassified. Please protect accordingly. (SBU) On May 22, Speaker of the National Assembly Arthur Bagdasarian submitted his official resignation to the Parliament. Bagdasarian announced his intention to quit the post on May 11, immediately after his Orinats Yerkir (OY) party left Armenia's ruling coalition (reftel). During his resignation speech Bagdasarian reiterated that his party had serious disagreements with two other coalition partners. Bagdasarian also announced that, as a result of the recent developments, eleven deputies (out of twenty) had left the OY faction. According to National Assembly regulations the parliament will accept Bagdasarian's resignation without voting if/when he confirms it on May 27 (5 days after the first announcement). Two other MPs from OY: Mher Shahgeldian (Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Defense National Security and Internal Affairs) and Gagik Mkheyan (Chairman of the NA Standing Committee on Social, Health and Environmental Affairs) also submitted resignation letters for their posts (which were granted to Orinats Yerkir under the terms of the coalition memorandum). EVANS