The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) is engaged in a “constructive” dialogue with Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian more than three months after being driven out of his government, a leader of the party said on Tuesday.
“We see no obstacles and problems in terms of solving our key national issues together with Mr. Pashinian,” said Armen Rustamian. “We will be doing business with Mr. Pashinian or anyone else on the basis of our political and ideological principles. In this sense, I see such room [for cooperation.]”
“We have been talking to Mr. Pashinian in a very constructive atmosphere,” he told a news conference. “We are making our views clear to each other. So I am optimistic about our further cooperation.”
Dashnaktsutyun was part of Armenia’s former government toppled during last spring’s “velvet revolution” led by Pashinian. It received two ministerial posts in a new government formed by him in May. Pashinian fired his Dashnaktsutyun-affiliated ministers in October, accusing their party of secretly collaborating with former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party.
Pashinian expressed readiness for renewed cooperation with Dashnaktsutyun in a written appeal to delegates of its congress held in Nagorno-Karabakh this month.
The congress began with the announcement of the resignation of the party’s longtime top leader, Hrant Markarian. The latter was reportedly blamed by some party figures for Dashnaktsutyun’s failure to win any seats in Armenia’s new parliament elected on December 9.
In his resignation speech, Markarian strongly criticized the current government’s policies. He said Dashnaktsutyun should aim for removing Pashinian and his political team from power in the next general elections.
Rustamian sounded more cautious in this regard. He said his party will not hesitate to oppose government policies unacceptable to it. He singled out the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.
Dashnaktsutyun, which remains influential in the Armenian Diaspora communities in the Middle East, the United States and France, has always favored a hard line on the conflict’s resolution, opposing major territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.