Senior representatives of the former ruling Republican Party (HHK) disagreed on Wednesday with former President Robert Kocharian’s claim that the recent dramatic change of Armenia’s government resulted from HHK leader Serzh Sarkisian’s attempt to cling to power.
Kocharian said on Tuesday that Sarkisian, who succeeded him as president in 2008, should not have turned Armenia into a parliamentary republic and become prime minister after completing his final presidential term in early April.
Sarkisian’s bid to extend his decade-long rule sparked huge protests that forced him to resign later in April. The country’s HHK-controlled parliament reluctantly chose the protest leader, Nikol Pashinian, as prime minister under popular pressure in May.
Vahram Baghdasarian, the HHK’s parliamentary leader, said that his party was right to back Sarkisian’s continued rule. He insisted that the protests would have broken out even if the HHK had installed another premier.
“I think that this process would have happened in case of any [Republican] prime ministerial candidate,” said Baghdasarian.
Eduard Sharmazanov, the HHK spokesman and a deputy parliament speaker, also defended Sarkisian, who remains his party’s top leader.
“It seems to meet that the main reason [for the revolution] was that we adopted a passive stance, whereas the political minority and its supporters adopted an active stance and changed Armenia’s government through blackmail,” he told reporters. “I strongly believe that Pashinian became prime minister on the back of threats and blackmail.”
Sharmazanov at the same time reaffirmed the HHK’s readiness to join forces with Kocharian in challenging the current government “regardless of our past disagreements.”
In an interview with the Russian NTV channel aired on Tuesday, Kocharian reaffirmed his decision to return to active politics which followed criminal charges levelled against him in connection with the 2008 post-election crackdown on opposition protesters in Yerevan. He said he can become a “serious consolidating factor” for Pashinian’s political opponents.
The embattled ex-president did not name any of his potential allies. Nor did he say whether he is planning to set up his own party.