YEREVAN (Noyan Tapan)–During the Monday session of Armenia’s National Assembly more than 40 members of the once-ruling Republic faction defected–27 of whom joined the parliamentary caucus of the Yerkrapah Battalion.
Yerkrapah Caucus faction president Albert Bazeyan told Noyan Tapan that defections from the Republic bloc and additions to his parliamentary group have been in progress for the past two weeks–since an internal crisis in leadership began to spread in Armenia.
"Thus–these members of parliament are stressing that they agree with the Yerkrapah position on the resolution of the Karabakh conflict. They are taking upon themselves a political responsibility," stated Bazeyan.
Being the majority–the Republic faction ruled the National Assembly and took its cues from the once-ruling Armenian National Movement–whose policies Bazeyan found were not beneficial for the Karabakh struggle.
The Yerkrapah leader explained that there was concern that Levon Ter-Petrosyan would sign a decree which would go against the will of the Armenian people and that decree would have been approved by the parliament.
He added that such a concern no longer existed since the members of the national assembly demonstrated their opposition to Ter-Petrosyan–stressing that currently the Republic bloc no longer held the majority seats in the legislature.
