{"id":284090,"date":"2018-03-21T13:55:19","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T09:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/epress.am?p=284090"},"modified":"2018-03-21T13:55:19","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T09:55:19","slug":"armenian-opposition-forces-pledge-to-fight-regime-reproduction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2018\/03\/21\/armenian-opposition-forces-pledge-to-fight-regime-reproduction.html","title":{"rendered":"Armenian Opposition Forces Pledge to Fight \u2018Regime Reproduction\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Article originally published by RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian Service<\/a><\/strong><\/span>:<\/em><\/p>\n

– Armenian opposition forces on Tuesday pledged to stage street protests in a bid to scuttle President Serzh Sarkisian\u2019s apparent plans to stay in power after completing his second and final presidential term on April 9.<\/p>\n

Sarkisian made clear on Monday that he stands ready to become prime minister later in April despite promising in 2014 to step aside in case of Armenia\u2019s transformation into a parliamentary republic. He cited the increased risk of renewed fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh and other security challenges facing the country. Opposition leaders were quick to accuse him of reneging on his pledge.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not a justification befitting a statesman. It smacked of petty fraud,\u201d said Ararat Mirzoyan, a senior member of Civil Contract, a major opposition party represented in the Armenian parliament.<\/p>\n

Top representatives of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) defended, however, the outgoing president\u2019s intention to extend his rule. Eduard Sharmazanov, the chief HHK spokesman, claimed that political \u201crealities\u201d in the country have changed in the past four years.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Sarkisian] is the kind of statesman who has always placed the interests of the state above his personal ambitions,\u201d claimed Sharmazanov.<\/p>\n

Another senior HHK figure, Gagik Melikian, said Sarkisian had only promised that he will \u201cnot aspire\u201d to the post of prime minister in case of Armenia\u2019s transition to a parliamentary system of government. Melikian also insisted that he is \u201cirreplaceable\u201d as the Armenian army\u2019s commander-in-chief.<\/p>\n

Mirzoyan dismissed these explanations as \u201cutter nonsense.\u201d Sarkisian\u2019s presidency has been a gross failure, he charged.<\/p>\n

Civil Contract is one of the three opposition parties making up the Yelk alliance, which finished third in last year\u2019s parliamentary elections. It has been pushing for street protests against Sarkisian\u2019s continued rule. The two other Yelk parties oppose such a campaign, saying that it is unlikely to succeed.<\/p>\n

The leaders of the three parties failed to bridge their differences at a meeting on Monday, leading Civil Contract to declare that it will separately launch a \u201cpolitical movement against Serzh Sarkisian\u2019s third term in office.\u201d It pledged to publicize a plan of concrete actions on March 31.<\/p>\n

The Civil Contract leader, Nikol Pashinian, indicated on Tuesday that his party is planning a series of demonstrations in Yerevan next month. Pashinian did not deny that it will hold nonstop street protests immediately after Sarkisian resigns as president on April 9. Armenia\u2019s HHK-controlled parliament is expected to vote for a new prime minister on April 17.<\/p>\n

Also campaigning against Sarkisian\u2019s \u201creproduction\u201d is the For the Armenian State coalition of more radical opposition groups and activists, including Raffi Hovannisian\u2019s Zharangutyun party. The grouping already rallied several hundred supporters in Yerevan earlier this month. Its next rally is scheduled for Friday.<\/p>\n

Another anti-Sarkisian gathering will be held on Saturday by a group of non-partisan activists highly critical of the Armenian government. \u201cOur main slogan will be \u2018Reject Serzh,\u201d one of them, Armen Grigorian, told RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am). Grigorian said he and his associates are ready to join forces with the opposition forces.<\/p>\n

Zharangutyun\u2019s chairman, Armen Martirosian, said that such a consolidation is critical for forcing Sarkisian out of power. \u201cOr else, [the separate campaigns] will facilitate the regime\u2019s reproduction,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to RFE\/RL\u2019s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), Pashinian said his party will be ready to team up with For the Armenian State only if the latter officially renounces violent methods of political struggle. \u201cWe will not respond to violence with violence,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n

Pashinian seemed to allude to the Zharangutyun-led grouping\u2019s strong support for opposition gunmen that seized a Yerevan police station in a July 2016 attack that left three police officers dead.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, another major opposition force, the Armenian National Congress (HAK) led by former President Levon Ter-Petrosian, confirmed that it will steer clear of anti-Sarkisian protests this time around. The HAK\u2019s deputy chairman, Levon Zurabian, said the Armenian opposition missed its chance when it failed to scuttle Sarkisian\u2019s 2015 constitutional reform and the HHK\u2019s disputed victory in the April 2017 elections.<\/p>\n

Zurabian again hit out at Civil Contract, saying that Pashinian\u2019s party refused to join the HAK in campaigning against the controversial constitutional changes that paved the way for Sarkisian\u2019s continued rule. \u201cAt any rate, I wish the fake opposition success in this struggle, even if I don\u2019t believe in their success,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top representatives of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK) defended, however, the outgoing president\u2019s intention to extend his rule. Eduard Sharmazanov, the chief HHK spokesman…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[66058],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284090"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284090\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}