One of them, Ishkhan Saghatelian, said his Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) party “will do everything” to scuttle what he described as a planned “surrender” of not only Karabakh but also Armenia.
“The Armenian people, all concerned political forces and citizens of Armenia have only five or six months to stop the process of surrendering the country,” Saghatelian told reporters.
“Our task now is to launch popular resistance in Armenia, Artsakh and the Diaspora with renewed vigor, prepare Armenia’s citizens for disobedience … come out and change this situation,” he said.
“They [the Armenian authorities] are not legitimate, they do not reflect the will of the Armenian people. Therefore, any effort to get rid of these authorities and save the country is legitimate, be it civil disobedience or an uprising,” added the former deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament.
Dashnaktsutyun, Saghatelian went on, will hold talks with other opposition forces in a bid to launch a broad-based protest movement.
The pan-Armenian party is a key member of the main opposition Hayastan alliance headed by former President Robert Kocharian. Other Hayastan leaders have also condemned Pashinian’s latest statements on the Karabakh conflict.
Hayastan and Pativ Unem, the other opposition bloc represented in the parliament, jointly staged daily anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan in May and June last year after Pashinian signaled readiness to “lower the bar” on Karabakh’s status acceptable to his government. They claim to have delayed a “capitulation agreement” with Baku despite failing to topple Pashinian.
A senior Pativ Unem member, Hayk Mamijanian, also voiced support on Tuesday for “large-scale street protests” and “individual actions” against Pashinian’s Karabakh policy.
“They both are very important and they must be carried out,” said Mamijanian.
Pativ Unem is already discussing the matter with its opposition allies, he added without naming any of them.
A senior lawmaker representing the ruling Civil Contract party insisted, meanwhile, that the peace treaty currently discussed by Baku and Yerevan is crucial for both Armenia and Karabakh. Artur Hovannisian claimed that Armenia’s recognition of Azerbaijan’s territorial integrity through such an accord would not preclude the Karabakh Armenians’ self-determination.