President Vahagn Khachaturyan signed the decrees on 3 August. Defense (Suren Papikyan), foreign affairs (Ararat Mirzoyan), finance, economy, justice and the interior. All unchanged. Both deputy prime ministers, Mher Grigoryan and Tigran Khachatryan, stay. The single change is David Tadevosyan, who takes high-tech industry from Mkhitar Hayrapetyan.
The constitution gave the process five days for nominations and fifteen for the cabinet. It took one. The programme clock now runs: 20 days to present the government’s programme, 7 more for the confidence vote.
The cabinet Armenia got on Monday is the cabinet it had on Friday, minus one name.
Rubinyan’s election to the speakership the same afternoon promotes the deputy speaker who has carried the Ankara file as special envoy. Civil Contract’s 64 of 105 seats did the arithmetic; the opposition benches went to Strong Armenia with 29 and Armenia Alliance with 12.
Continuity is itself the message. A government that called the EAEU “de facto paralyzed” ten days ago returns to the same table unchanged, and the speaker’s chair now belongs to the Turkey track.