The opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) on Friday again predicted the impending downfall of Armenia’s current leadership, saying that it is increasingly riven by infighting and facing mounting international pressure over the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
“Confrontations within the regime are deepening and the main reason for that is that the regime has found itself in a desperate situation,” claimed Levon Zurabian, the HAK’s central office coordinator. “That is, many within the regime have lost their faith in [President] Serzh Sarkisian’s ability to ensure the security of their livelihoods and government continuity.”
Speaking at a news conference, Zurabian said the Sarkisian administration has come under “unprecedented” pressure from international mediators to accept a solution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict unfavorable for the Armenian side. “We not only don’t exclude but consider very likely force-majeure developments both inside the country and on the external front,” he said.
The claims were in tune recent statements made by the top leader of the opposition alliance, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian. Addressing an HAK rally in Yerevan last month, Ter-Petrosian said Sarkisian now has to either accept the proposed Karabakh settlement and face a domestic backlash or to put himself at odds with the international community.
“The paradox of the situation is that in both cases Serzh Sarkisian will undoubtedly lose power,” Ter-Petrosian said, urging the president to resign and call snap national elections.
Representatives of Sarkisian’s Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) have repeatedly laughed off the opposition claims. In particular, the party’s deputy chairman, Razmik Zohrabian, has described the talk of fresh elections as “wishful thinking.”
Ter-Petrosian already predicted in March 2009 that Sarkisian and his governing coalition “will destroy themselves” in the next few months after failing to prevent a “drastic fall in living standards” resulting from the global economic crisis.