GLENDALE : Armenian Official Visits City for Week

A high-ranking official from Armenia’s opposition party on Wednesday concluded a weeklong visit to Glendale during which he updated local Armenian leaders on his country’s current political troubles and urged Washington officials not to cut off U.S. aid to Armenia.

Seyran Bagdasarian, a member of the Armenian Parliament since 1990 and a key figure in the Armenian Revolutionary Federation Party, spoke to about 500 people at St. Mary’s Armenian Church about the Armenian government’s recent moves away from the democratization process, including President Levon Ter-Petrossian’s closing of a dozen newspapers and the jailing of political dissidents.

Bagdasarian’s party--the largest opposition party in Armenia--has also been banned from next month’s national elections.

But when Bagdasarian met with senior White House adviser George Stephanopoulos on Monday, he said he asked that U.S. aid to Armenia not be cut off to put pressure on the government. Cutting off aid, he said, could force the government to take even more drastic measures to keep its hold on power.

“The government is in a very fragile situation,” Bagdasarian said in an interview Wednesday. “There is opposition from within the government and from outside. Our goal should be to maintain the government’s structural integrity so it doesn’t fall apart, then deal with our internal problems.”

Armenia has been hailed by Western nations for its strides toward democracy since it became an independent nation 3 1/2 years ago. It receives the most aid per capita of any former Soviet republic, but the Clinton Administration has indicated it is considering sanctions as it watches current developments.

Bagdasarian said that there also is much concern about a new national Constitution that will be up for referendum on the election ballot. Proposed by the government, the Constitution would grant the president the ability to dissolve parliament and the right to name and fire state governors, judges and prosecutors.

“The current government felt that gaining ground in this election is ultimately more important than the road to democracy, and therefore they have jeopardized the whole democratization process,” he said.

It was the sixth political trip to the United States for Bagdasarian, 36.

“He is definitely a leader,” said Pierre Chraghchian, a board member of the Armenian National Committee’s Western Region, which sponsored Bagdasarian’s visit. “He has quite a following, both in Armenia and in the Diaspora. I wouldn’t be surprised if he became president someday.”