On May 12, 2006, Armenian National Assembly Speaker Artur Baghdasaryan announced his resignation and the withdrawal of his party, Orinats Yerkir, from the ruling coalition formed after the 2003 parliamentary elections. The ex-speaker said that the decision was made following a meeting of the Coalition Council, chaired by Armenian President Robert Kocharian, where the parties agreed on a “civilized parting.”

Baghdasaryan attributed Orinats Yerkir’s withdrawal to “numerous disagreements” over domestic affairs, foreign policy, and socio-economic issues.

Tensions within the ruling coalition emerged again in mid-April following the publication of an interview with Speaker of Parliament Artur Baghdasaryan in the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In the interview, Baghdasaryan stated, “The future of Armenia is the European Union and NATO.”

The speaker also noted at the same time that “we should remain friends with Russia, but Russia too should not stand in our way to Europe.”

A few days later, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan responded to Artur Baghdasaryan through the Golos Armenii daily:

“Armenia’s foreign policy course remains unchanged. Within the framework of the Individual Partnership Action Plan, our country is expanding cooperation with the North Atlantic Alliance as a key European security organization. We look forward to fruitful cooperation, especially in the issues of reforming the Armenian Armed Forces and peacekeeping activities.

However, Armenia has no intention of joining NATO. Membership in the Collective Security Treaty Organization and high-level military-technical cooperation with Russia adequately ensure the country’s security.

Today Armenia is preparing for closer cooperation with the EU under the European Neighborhood Policy, but we are not pursuing EU membership. Armenia’s Euro-Atlantic ambitions are balanced, realistic and positively received by European structures and do not create problems in our relations with Russia.”

On May 12, after announcing his resignation, Artur Baghdasaryan reiterated that “Armenia’s future is in Europe and NATO” and added that the Orinats Yerkir party “sees no alternative to Armenia’s European integration process.”

In February 2007, Baghdasaryan published an article in The Washington Times
entitled “Future Armenia”, in which he wrote that “Armenia’s future is linked to European integration and deepening of our relations with NATO.”

Two months later, on April 21, the Golos Armenii newspaper published excerpts from a secretly recorded conversation between Artur Baghdasaryan and an unnamed British diplomat. In the conversation, Baghdasaryan demanded support from the British Embassy and suggested adopting a tougher stance toward the Armenian authorities.

On April 26, the British Embassy expressed “concern and disappointment” over the wiretapping of a conversation between an embassy official and the leader of an opposition party, as well as the subsequent publication of excerpts in the press.

The Orinats Yerkir leader ran in the 2008 presidential elections, strongly criticizing the authorities throughout his campaign. According to official results, Artur Baghdasaryan came third in the elections, with about 17 percent of the vote. And while everyone was waiting for him to unite with Armenia’s ex-president Levon Ter-Petrosyan, who was challenging the election results, on February 29, 2008, it was announced that Artur Baghdasaryan would take the post of the Secretary of the National Security Council under the President. Additionally, the Orinats Yerkir party would form a coalition with the Republican Party of Armenia and the Prosperous Armenia party.

On January 29, 2013, CSTO Secretary General Nikolay Bordyuzha and Armenia’s National Security Council Secretary, Artur Baghdasaryan, signed a memorandum in Yerevan on the establishment of the CSTO Academy Foundation in Armenia. Bordyuzha said “the Academy is an information-analytical center and a hub for training specialists and political analysts on issues related to the CSTO’s functioning.”

However, reality proved different - the “academy” never opened. As our colleagues from the Fact Investigation Platform found out, in 2013, the Armenian government issued decree No. 917-A, granting the CSTO Academy Foundation free use of the building belonging to Yerevan’s Hrachya Acharyan School No. 72, located at 2 Heratsi Street.

The foundation did not belong to an international organization; instead, it belonged to a physical person Nikolay Bordyuzha. Moreover, according to the FIP publication, in 2014 Nikolay Bordyuzha applied to the Armenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting the status of an institution acting under an international treaty to be provided to the CSTO Academy before the signing of the agreement on the status and activity of the academy. The academy received such a status and appeared among the diplomatic missions in Armenia as an international organization.

“In fact, the government gave an entire building in the center of Yerevan as a gift to Artur Baghdasaryan and Nikolay Bordyuzha,” the FIP publication read.

Ara Tadevosyan

Photolure and REUTERS photos were used in this chapter