Epress.am News from Armenia
The statements referring to the economy stated in Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s (pictured) speech at the Mar. 10 Republican Party of Armenia congress are completely untrue, former Armenian prime minister and representative of the opposition bloc the Armenian National Congress Hrant Bagratyan told reporters in the capital earlier today.
Weighing in on media reports that that part of Sargsyan’s speech was intended for former president Robert Kocharian, Bagratyan said who the speech is addressed to or who it’s against doesn’t interest him.
“If Serzh Sargsyan is trying to resolve Kocharian’s issues, I don’t need to get into those intrigues — it doesn’t concern me. What concerns me is Serzh Sargsyan’s, as the country’s actual leader, speech, which is inaccurate,” he said.
Bagratyan recalled that the country’s president and leader of the Republican Party in his speech opined that Armenia is experiencing economic growth.
“There’s no growth; we’ve said it for a hundred times — well shouldn’t the president or the finance minister know this much? Azerbaijan’s budget today is $18 billion; Armenia’s, $2.5 billion. Our country is vanishing — one war and we’ll be defeated 100%,” he said.
The former PM stressed that, according to his calculations, Armenia needs an annual growth of 7.4% GDP for people to remain in the country.
“We don’t have emigration; we have an export instead of a [mere] outflow of people. Our authorities don’t need a nation that lives well,” he said.
In Bagratyan’s opinion, a nation that is well off won’t accept bribes during elections, which is a widely applied practice in Armenia.
“Further growth in life and standards of living is unacceptable for our authorities. Such further growth is possible under conditions of democratization, for which our authorities are not ready,” he said.