REFORMERS LEAVE ARMENIA’S RULING PARTY.

Eduard Yeghorian and nine other parliamentary deputies have created a new parliamentary group, Homeland, splitting off from the Republic bloc which forms the majority in Armenia’s parliament. The majority promptly retaliated by replacing Yeghorian from his post of chairman of the parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee. The ten deputies, all described as founding members of the ruling Armenian Pan-National Movement, have not yet resigned from the APNM, hoping to gather more adherents within the party. However, Republic bloc leader Ter-Husik Lazarian said the ten deputies had "burned all bridges" and predicted that Homeland will shortly become a full-fledged opposition party. The APNM for its part expelled from its ranks the prominent parliamentary and former government official David Shahnazarian, a critic of President Levon Ter-Petrosian’s authoritarian rule. (Noyan-Tapan, September 10-11)

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