A leading oppositionist has criticized the government for heavily borrowing in the past year calling it a “pawnshop” policy that might pose a risk to the country’s solvency.
Aram Karapetyan, leader of the opposition New Times party, slammed the recent remarks made by President Serzh Sargsyan in a wide-ranging speech at the ruling Republican Party’s congress last weekend.
Sargsyan, in particular, sought to downplay talk that $1.5 billion borrowed by his government from international donors and other states this year to combat the effects of the global economic recession are affecting Armenia’s international economic standing.
Sargsyan stressed that “all the talk that Armenia has a large state debt is designed for people who are not well familiar with economic policies and is aimed at terrifying our people.”
“It is situations like these for which such a thing as ‘debt’ exists. Had we had a lot of money, we would not have borrowed. Besides, credit is given to the one that has a reserve of trust that this credit will be repaid. And when we are given a grant, it is charity and not credit. Therefore, if they lend money to us, give us credit, it means that we have the reserve of that trust. Good times will come, our state budget and GDP will grow and we will return to the situation in which we were,” said the Armenian president in his major policy speech on Saturday.
Karapetyan, meanwhile, said he was concerned over the position of the government that he said was assuring the people that “keeping on borrowing large sums of money from foreign creditors is a norm.”
The oppositionist said it was patently clear that any loan was going to be a heavy burden on the state budget, and Armenia has now contracted a state debt of more than $3 billion (with a budget of $2.5 billion).
On the Armenian-Turkish protocols, Karapetyan said that a division is now being clearly drawn between those in the political establishment who are for and against the documents.
At a press conference Monday Karapetyan announced that 13 political parties (including his New Times, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Heritage, Ramkavar-Azatakan and others) will make a statement December 1 presenting their joint position on the Zurich protocols.
Karapetyan, known for his pro-Russian foreign policy orientation, appeared in Armenian politics shortly before the 2003 election in which he made an unsuccessful bid at presidency (gathering 4 percent of the popular vote).
In the 2008 presidential election Karapetyan’s New Times backed the ex-president and opposition leader Levon Ter-Petrosyan. The party, though, did not formally join Ter-Petrosyan’s Armenian National Congress, which is by and large supportive of Sargsyan’s policy on Turkey.
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