WikiLeaks dubs Hovik Abrahamyan as Tigran Sargsyan’s main rival

PanARMENIAN.Net - WikiLeaks whistle blowing website has released another stack of cables classified by deputy head of U.S. diplomatic mission in Armenia Joseph Pennington after meeting with Armenian Parliament Speaker Hovik Abrahamyan.

The meeting described focused on Armenia’s foreign policy and internal reforms. According to Pennington, Abrahamyan called Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan, viewed as a reformer in Armenia, “a person whose words don’t match his actions”.

As Pennington noted, in a conversation with Sargsyan, Abrahamyan failed to get a clear response as to the means necessary to fight corruption and oligopoly.

According to Pennington, without any noticeable sense of irony, he went on to ridicule the PM’s asset declaration draft law that would require 500 senior public officials to come clean about their holdings and business interests.

In his comments Pennington stressed Abrahamyan is widely considered one of Sargsyan’s most formidable rivals, and someone who is carefully building up his own power base.

“With detainees or the NGO law, for example, Abrahamyan likely concluded there was decent upside and limited cost to at least presenting himself as an advocate for inclusiveness and reconciliation. But where a reform agenda collides with his personal or political interests, as with a draft law requiring him to reveal his considerable business holdings, he reverts to what most suspect is his true, thuggish form,” he said, according to cables released.