'It is false to claim that former Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan is not taking part in election' - Nikol Pashinyan
Serzh Sargsyan on his 2018 resignation — Nikol Pashinyan responds
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has dismissed as false former president Serzh Sargsyan’s claim that he does not intend to take part in the upcoming June parliamentary elections.
“In previous elections he ran with the ‘I Have Honour’ bloc; in these elections — with the ‘Strong Armenia’ party. First he announced his support for this party, then his entire party took part in Strong Armenia rallies. In the electoral process they are seeking revenge and the restoration of the 2016–2017 coalition: the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun), Prosperous Armenia [the party of businessman Gagik Tsarukyan], and the Republican Party of Armenia [Sargsyan’s party],” the prime minister said.
In 2018, then opposition politician Nikol Pashinyan led protests demanding Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation. The movement evolved into the “Velvet Revolution,” which brought about a change of power in Armenia. Pashinyan has led the government since.
On 23 April, eight years since his resignation, Serzh Sargsyan issued a statement addressing the upcoming elections.
He said his party’s decision not to participate “is not simply a political position, but a unified, balanced and well-founded decision — a historic one.”
According to the former president, a significant part of the population believes that Pashinyan’s government should remain in power “as long as the ‘former’ authorities are at the forefront of the political struggle against it.” He added:
“If my participation and that of the Republican Party add even one percent to the reproduction of the current authorities, we will step back. In doing so, we will allow people to express their will soberly, without emotion, and give other opposition forces the opportunity to fulfil their promise of changing power through elections.”
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What Serzh Sargsyan said on his resignation day
“Unity is essential to secure opposition victory in elections”
According to the former president, the Republican Party of Armenia had not intended to take part in the snap parliamentary elections in 2021 either, but was compelled to do so in order to prevent what he described as “betrayal of Artsakh and capitulation.” The party has now taken a final decision not to participate in the 2026 elections.
“I am convinced that total unity is necessary to ensure an opposition victory and prevent the fragmentation of votes that would serve the interests of the current regime,” Serzh Sargsyan said.
He added that the Republican Party of Armenia would continue its activities as an extra-parliamentary political force “for the sake of historical memory, dignity and the Armenian dream”:
“The group that has torn Armenia from its roots, brought it to its knees, burdened it with debt and flooded it with lies must go. The alternative is disastrous — for our country, our people and the next generation. It is disastrous for them as well; they simply do not yet realise it.”
“I was wrong, even though I was right”
Serzh Sargsyan also commented on his 2018 resignation, focusing on the line from his address to the nation: “Nikol Pashinyan was right, I was wrong.”
“In my resignation statement, I included a sentence which, through editing by one of its beneficiaries and subsequent manipulation by my ‘sworn’ friends, was used to stigmatise me,” he wrote.
The former president said he had made both correct and mistaken decisions in his life.
“My most correct and most difficult decision was to break my own promise and run for prime minister in 2018,” his statement said.
He also described that same decision as his “biggest mistake”:
“I failed to explain to our people that the aim of my nomination was not to retain power, but to ensure the security of Karabakh and Armenia. Yes, Nikol was right. He was ready to go to the end. He had no red lines. I should not have run. I was wrong in thinking we could explain to the people that my departure in a complex negotiation situation would lead to catastrophe. […] I could not explain this to the people because they did not want to listen. I was wrong, even though I was right.”
According to former president Serzh Sargsyan, he believed that changing the negotiator at that stage would have led to negative consequences:
“Not because I was the best negotiator, but because I had a deep understanding of all the parties involved in the talks. I had institutional memory and knew the value of Karabakh and of the victory as a member of the team that achieved and then preserved it.”
Serzh Sargsyan also said he agreed to stand for office eight years ago to prevent bloodshed at the borders, and later resigned to avoid bloodshed within the country.
Nikol Pashinyan: “Karabakh movement did not benefit Armenia”
Responding to the claims made by Serzh Sargsyan, Nikol Pashinyan said that the Karabakh movement had led Armenia into a “dead-end situation.” According to him, after the 1994 ceasefire agreement was signed, “the war was postponed under one pretext or another,” but he views that period as an active phase of the conflict, as it “was not postponed even for a year”:
“In our understanding, it was a ‘no war, no peace’ situation. But that is not the case. We did not have ‘no war, no peace’. We had a war — with varying intensity.”
He also recalled that in April 2018 Serzh Sargsyan himself said from the parliamentary podium: “The outbreak of war can no longer be delayed.”
The prime minister added that the government had published negotiation documents, yet debates over how both former and current leaders brought the country to this point have continued. At the same time, he said Armenian society already knows “absolutely everything” about the 44-day war in 2020:
“Does anyone think there could be new information about the 44-day war that society does not already know? Anyone who thinks so is being dishonest.”
According to Nikol Pashinyan, the negotiation documents on Nagorno-Karabakh convey only one message: “We shamelessly deceived our people.”
“The Karabakh movement did not serve the good of Armenia and the Armenian people. It served those who believed and wanted the Armenian people and the Republic of Armenia never to leave the status of a victim. Now I am proud that I have led our state out of this trap. Yes, at the cost of sacrifices,” he stressed.
Speaking about political forces intending to take part in the elections, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan again named the “Strong Armenia” party, the Prosperous Armenia Party, and the “Armenia” bloc as a “three-headed party of war.” He explained this by saying that these forces speak of “the return of Karabakh, the return to the lost homeland.”
“Elections are a unique chance for our people to knock criminal oligarchs out of the political arena,” said Nikol Pashinyan.
The leader of the “Armenia” bloc is former president Robert Kocharyan. The “Strong Armenia” party is led by Russian businessman and dollar billionaire Samvel Karapetyan. In June last year, he was arrested on charges of publicly calling for the seizure of power and is currently under house arrest. The founder and leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party is major entrepreneur Gagik Tsarukyan.
