The Armenian opposition ends boycott and returns to parliament. What's next?
Armenian opposition returns to parliament
“We are here, and you must come to terms with this fact,” opposition MP Aghvan Hovsepyan told the Armenian parliamentary majority.
The oppositionists, who boycotted the meetings for more than six months, returned to the hall of the National Assembly “with the most important agenda to the citizens of Armenia and Artsakh.” They emphasize that it is, in particular, about ensuring the security and defense of the country, social problems and the state of the economy, and issues related to public administration.
According to political scientist Gurgen Simonyan, the opposition could have had a variety of motives for returning to parliament, from internal political calculations to fulfilling an order from outside. It also does not rule out that the deputies from the opposition decided to participate in the meetings simply in order not to lose their mandates.
“Now there is a temporary pause on the street”
The deputies of both the “Hayastan” (Armenia) and “I have the honor” parties returned to the table.
“This is the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, and the National Assembly of citizens who sent us here is not your property,” Hayastan faction MP Aghvan Vardanyan said, addressing the deputies of the ruling majority.
He stated that it was decided to return to the parliament since “now there is a temporary pause in the street,” referring to the street campaign launched by the opposition in May of this year.
The opposition factions “I have the honor” and “Hayastan” began a street campaign with the aim of the resignation of Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan after his statement about a possible “lowering the bar” on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh. For a month and a half, opposition tents blocked the road in the very center of Yerevan, on France Square, and street actions were held throughout the city. Then the opposition announced a “change of tactics”, and the sit-ins and rallies stopped.
But the deputies did not return to parliament by the beginning of the autumn session either. They announced that “a false agenda that has nothing to do with the serious threats facing Armenia” is being discussed in the National Assembly.
According to Aghvan Vardanyan, they will continue to fight the “destructive policies of the government”:
“In these difficult times for the Armenian people, this government poses a threat to statehood and Armenian identity. With this government Armenia and Artsakh have no future, our people have no future. We are here to prevent this destructive process from becoming irreversible.”
The head of the Hayastan faction Seyran Ohanyan answered the suggestion that the opposition returned to the parliament in order not to lose mandates by saying that neither he nor the rest of the opposition “worried about the loss of parliamentary immunity.”
“Presence in the National Assembly does not exclude street action”
Taguhi Tovmasyan, a deputy from the “I have the honor” party, said this the other day. She announced the party’s decision on her Facebook and said that this does not mean the end of the “fight against the government of Nikol Pashinyan.”
Tovmasyan also said that the party platform has not changed, it’s just that now they will use all possible tools to fight for a change of power:
“We will use both street fighting and other methods of fighting Nikol Pashinyan’s government in order to prevent its continuation. But at this point we will be in parliament as well.”
The opposition’s goal is for the government to resign
According to the head of the Hayastan party Seyran Ohanyan, they have already presented to the people outside the walls of the parliament the problems that they intend to solve:
“They concern security, Artsakh, defense, social problems, the state of the economy, state administration.”
The main goal, as the deputy said, remains the deposition of the current authorities.
Ohanyan believes that the opposition did a very important job during the street struggle:
- generated the spirit of struggle among its supporters and other residents of the country,
- showed the international community that the Armenian people are capable of continuing to fight for the autonomy of Armenia,
- prevented the signing of some documents.
“Now the street actions are over and our supporters have given us a mandate to continue our activities within the walls of the National Assembly,” he said.
Comment
Political scientist Gurgen Simonyan finds it difficult to say why the opposition decided to return to parliament right now. He says that their methods are “inexplicable from the point of view of political science”, while the motives might be very different — from internal political calculations to the fulfillment of an order from outside.
“We all know that they organize their political agenda in Armenia in close cooperation with foreign forces [referring to the pro-Russian orientation of the leaders of the opposition parties]. So maybe it’s a change in strategy dictated from outside, maybe it’s a decision in the context of their internal turmoil. Maybe they just understand that they cannot have any influence [on the inhabitants of Armenia], but in this way, at least they will not lose their mandates, they will receive a salary from the state,” he told JAMnews.
According to the Simonyan, instead of constructive activities to put pressure on the authorities, the opposition was actually wasting time on the street.
Simonyan believes that when talking about the parliamentary opposition of Armenia, it is necessary to use the term street campaign with reservations, regarding the opposition’s actions rather as an attempt to violate public order.
Commenting on the contradictory statements of the two opposition parties on the termination or continuation of the street campaign, Simonyan says that the opposition parties have always been distinguished by “inconsistency in actions”.
“We still have an important issue of opposition formation. I think it will still be formed outside the context of the parliamentary forces. The opposition forces of the parliament have already shown the limit of their political capabilities, and it is not enough to become an alternative to the current government,” he said.
Commenting on the list of “important things” that, according to deputy Seyran Ohanyan, the opposition managed to accomplish, Simonyan regards it as an attempt to “appropriate laurels and an attempt to pass them off as their political capital”:
“Armenia is facing existential problems, but there is no hopelessness in society. People are ready to defend their motherland. And this is not connected with the actions of any political force, this is a nationwide sentiment.”
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Armenian opposition returns to parliament
