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The US Embassy in Armenia found both good and “not so good” aspects in Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s new cabinet completed on Apr. 21, 2008, according to then US Charge d’Affairs Joseph Pennington in a Apr. 23, 2008 confidential cable titled “Armenia’s new cabinet: Slightly freshened, but a lot like the old one” recently released by WikiLeaks.
“Eleven of 17 ministers were reappointed, although several of these had their portfolios adjusted. The most positive developments (and probably the most deliberate signal sending) are in several economic ministries, in which President Sargsyan has shifted more authority to technocrats with good reputations,” writes Pennington.
The US diplomat particularly draws attention to the appointment of Tigran Davtyan as finance minister and the allocation of additional portfolios to the “well-liked” economy minister Nerses Yeritsyan. “Both men are smart, non-partisan technocrats — and effective, long-time embassy contacts — who have no political base of their own. Both are seen as clean and competent,” Pennington sums up.
In a section called “Not so good, not so bad,” the US diplomat seems not as confident in the appointments of Armen Gevorgyan and Hovik Abrahamyan (Gevorgyan as RA Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Territorial Administration; Abrahamyan as presidential chief of staff), saying that Gevorgyan is “very clearly ex-president [Robert] Kocharian’s man,” while Abrahamyan’s “first loyalty is more evidently to his own interests” but he s believed to be more “Kocharian’s man” than current Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan’s.
“Both of these appointments seem to have been the result of intense bargaining between Kocharian and the new president, with Kocharian probably determined to install his loyalists in several key positions to watch out for his interests,” reads the cable.
Pennington concludes by saying that while Abrahamyan’s position is potentially quite influential, “our hunch is that Abrahamyan is being marginalized”:
“It would not surprise us to see him pushed out completely in the next six months to a year. Abrahamian has one of the most checkered reputations in the Armenian Government, for both corruption as well as for his role as chief operating officer of the dirtiest and most coercive tactics of Serzh Sargsyan’s presidential election campaign.”
On the appointment of Seyran Ohanyan as defense minister, Pennington notes that it “was widely suspected last year when he first came from Nagorno Karabakh (NK) as chief of the general staff, though in more recent months other serious candidates had been proposed as well. Ohanyan is understood to be a close comrade of Serzh Sargsyan from the NK war times, and presumed to be thoroughly loyal to the new president.”
On Gurgen Sargsyan as new Minister of Transport and Communication, Pennington notes “We know very little so far about Gurgen Sargsyan … except for the widespread whispers that the new minister had outright bribed [Orinats Yerkir, or Rule of Law party leader] Artur Baghdasaryan [pictured] for his high position on the Orinats Yerkir party list during the May 2007 parliamentary election. Sargsyan had just joined the Orinats Yerkir party weeks before the May 2007 election, and had no other evident qualifications for high political office than his money.”
Photo: RFE/RL’s Armenian service