The Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun) accused the government of not delivering on its promises and seeking to establish “one-man rule” instead as it held a rally in Yerevan on Thursday.
“Armenia’s authorities do not have a program or vision for country’s development and a professional team to address challenges facing the country,” Ishkhan Saghatelian, a leader of the opposition party, told hundreds of supporters who gathered in the city’s Liberty Square.
“Instead of forming a common national agenda, consolidating the society, establishing social solidarity … the authorities continue to work, live and breathe with the past,” he said.
Saghatelian deplored Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s latest verbal attacks on his political foes and allegations that some of them are plotting treasonous acts in Nagorno-Karabakh. He claimed that such statements are only destabilizing the political situation and could even “provoke clashes in the country.”
“Stop looking for enemies among your own people,” Saghatelian said, appealing to the authorities. “Understand that those who do not share your views or criticize you are also the people. Give up [political] shows, populism, demagoguery and intentions to establish one-man rule on behalf of the people though force and threats.”
“Do not repeat the mistakes of which you yourself had accused others in past. Or else, it could be too late. The people’s patience has limits,” he warned.
Armenia -- Ishkhan Saghatelian, a leader of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, speaks at a rally in Yerevan, May 23, 2019.
Another senior Dashnaktsutyun figure, former Agriculture Minister Artur Khachatrian, attacked the government’s economic record. “Where is the [promised] economic revolution?” he said. “I don’t see results of that revolution.”
“They say there are no oligarchs anymore,” Khachatrian went on. “But has the structure of our economy changed? Which company with dominant positions in the market has ceded its positions?”
Khachatrian was one of the two Dashnaktsutyun-affiliated members of Pashinian’s first cabinet formed in May 2018 following the Armenian velvet revolution. The prime minister sacked them in October, accusing Dashnaktsutyun of secretly collaborating with former President Serzh Sarkisian’s Republican Party (HHK).
Dashnaktsutyun has since been increasingly critical of Pashinian’s government. The center-left nationalist party, which is particularly influential in the Armenian Diaspora, failed to win any seats in the Armenian parliament in snap general elections held in December.
In a declaration adopted at a congress held late last month, Dashnaktsutyun’s organization in Armenia said that the authorities have failed to achieve “tangible results in any area of public life.” It also joined other opposition groups on Sunday in condemning Pashinian’s calls for a blockade of all court buildings in the country.
Pashinian appealed to his supporters to stage such protests on Monday morning following the release from custody of his bitter foe and former President Robert Kocharian, who is facing corruption and coup charges. He went on to state that many Armenian judges remain linked to “the former corrupt system.”
Dashnaktsutyun, which was allied to Kocharian during his 1998-2008 rule, criticized his arrest last year on charges stemming from the 2008 post-election violence in Yerevan. Speaking to reporters after Thursday’s rally, one of the party’s veteran leaders, Armen Rustamian, described the coup charges as “absurd.”