Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) insisted on Monday that it is now the country’s main opposition force, dismissing criticism from other political groups challenging Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian in the upcoming parliamentary elections.
The HHK laid claim to that status earlier this month when it decided to participate in the December 9 snap elections. Its top election candidate, former Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian, said the former ruling party is aiming to finish second in the parliamentary race.
Edmon Marukian, the leader of the Bright Armenia party until recently allied to Pashinian, disputed those claims, saying that the HHK is now too discredited and unpopular to be a credible alternative to the current government.
“We can be a spotless opposition force which cannot be weakened by any targeted criticism and claims that ‘young did such bad things in the past,’” Marukian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service at the weekend.
“If there is a former ruling force that wants to be opposition they won’t manage to do that because if you speak out against something you must not have done that [while in power,]” he reasoned.
Vahram Baghdasarian, who has led the HHK group in the outgoing Armenian parliament, brushed aside such statements. He portrayed Bright Armenia and other purportedly opposition parties as flip-floppers who have failed to be “normal opposition” under both the current and former authorities.
Baghdasarian claimed that they initially refused to back this spring’s mass anti-government protests against and sided with Pashinian only after it became clear that he will topple the Sarkisian administration. “They are neither in opposition nor in government. They are simply on the sidelines,” he said.
Armen Rustamian, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), dismissed the HHK rhetoric as pre-election propaganda ploys. He also faulted the HHK for effectively blocking last month key amendments to the Electoral Code backed virtually all other Armenian factions.
Dashnaktsutyun struck a power-sharing deal with Sarkisian in 2016 and remained allied to the former Armenian president up until his resignation on April 23. Like Bright Armenia and the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), it went on to join a new governing coalition that was formed by Pashinian in May.
The premier forced the BHK and Dashnaktsutyun out of his government in October. He accused them of secretly collaborating with the HHK to try to delay the holding of fresh parliamentary elections.
The HHK won while the BHK finished second in the last elections held in April 2017. A senior BHK representative, Vahe Enfiajian, would not say on Monday whether his party led by businessman Gagik Tsarukian is hoping to win the upcoming polls or retain its current status as the second largest parliamentary force.
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