Armenian opposition takes to streets, calls society to 'wake up'
Opposition demands prime minister’s resignation
The Armenian opposition continues protests demanding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan to resign. Demonstrators block streets and bridges in Yerevan, hold protests in front of state institutions, and organize marches from the regions to the capital.
The Hayastan opposition parliamentary faction (Armenia) began a series of permanent street actions on April 25 under the slogan “Get up, Armenia”, “Get up, Artsakh”. The second oppositional force of the parliament, the I Have the Honor faction, started the fight earlier, but less spectacularly. Its head, Artur Vanetsyana, has been holding a sit-in strike on Freedom Square in downtown Yerevan since April 17.
The opposition accuses the current government of intending to make unacceptable concessions on Nagorno-Karabakh, and claims that the Pashinyan government “intends to recognize Artsakh as part of Azerbaijan“.
Opposition forces operate separately from each other, even though they have one goal – a change of power. They believe that at the moment decentralized struggle is the most effective.
- Armenian opposition takes to streets – will there be a second Velvet Revolution?
- PM Pashinyan, President Putin meet amid war in Ukraine and tensions in Armenia
- What should be expected from Karabakh talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan?
Rallies in Yerevan and marches from the regions to the capital
Deputies of the Hayastan opposition faction and their supporters have been holding “awareness marches” on different streets and squares of the capital since April 25. These are actions that “explain to people” what the opposition accuses the current authorities of. At the same time, this is a call to join the struggle for its overthrow.
Young people are also actively involved in the movement. For the second day in a row, they organize actions in universities, calling on students to join the fight. On April 27, they brought a “gift” for the prime minister to the government building – “essential items that he will use in prison”. However, the police did not allow them to leave the “gift” on the steps of the government building.
Since April 25, a group of oppositionists has been marching to Yerevan from the city of Ijevan, Tavush region. On the 26th, a similar march began from the village of Tigranashen in the Ararat region.
Ijevan is the birthplace of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Tigranashen is one of the enclaves of Soviet Azerbaijan that have been reclaimed since the 2020 Karabakh war.
The purpose of the marches is to “wake people up from hibernation”, and to help them see “the threats that Armenia is facing”.
All street actions of this political force will continue until May 1. According to Ishkhan Saghatelyan, an MP from the Hayastan faction, and Vice Speaker of the Parliament, “much more concrete actions” will begin after that.
Sit-in strike continues
The action of the head of the I Have the Honor opposition faction on Freedom Square will continue until the second stage of the struggle begins. Then, according to Artur Vanetsyan, the steps that the opposition intends to take to save the country will be announced. So far, both opposition forces have not reported anything about their plans.
Behind both factions are former presidents of Armenia, known for their pro-Russian past. Serzh Sargsyan is behind the I Have the Honor faction and Robert Kocharyan is behind the Hayastan bloc.
In the meantime, Artur Vanetsyan welcomes the street struggle of the Hayastan faction. According to him, “somewhere at some point, all the actions will definitely intersect, because everyone has the same goal” – the security of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, and it can only be achieved with a change of power. Moreover, the oppositionist believes that it should take place in a constitutional way, that is, in parliament.
In the meantime, deputies from both opposition factions do not participate in the work of parliament. The ruling party accuses them of not going to work, but getting paid. In response, the opposition deputies say that they do not intend to give up their mandates yet, they keep them in case “there is a need to reach a final resolution of the issue in parliament”.
“They used to threaten us with war, now they threaten with peace”
“The opposition has declared war on the world in order to seize power”, said Hayk Konjoryan, leader of the ruling Civil Contract party. He says that the opposition in every possible way rejects the idea of peace in Armenia, scares people with it, calls to join them in order to prevent the idea of “traitorous authorities” from reconciling with Azerbaijanis:
“This is a very strange idea, but with whom should we go to peace? You have to put up with those with whom you are at war. Is not it? In this case, with the Azerbaijanis”.
According to the deputy, the opposition is trying to use the idea of peace as “a club to strike at the current government” in order to regain power.
“Whose interests does the opposition serve? In whose interests are the Armenian people, the Republic of Armenia always in the cycle of wars and conflicts?”, Konjoryan asks.
According to the deputy from the ruling power, the opposition, which at one time was in power, then frightened the people with war:
“Today, the same former government, the current opposition is already scaring the people with peace, saying: “Dear people, come on, help us come to power, otherwise there will be peace”. This is a very dangerous, extremely ugly policy that can have extremely dangerous consequences for the Armenian people, the Republic of Armenia”.
Hrachya Hakobyan, another deputy from the ruling faction, believes that the opposition cannot achieve a change of power, as there is no public demand, and the oppositionists do not have a specific agenda.
Referring to the Prime Minister’s sensational statement about the need to “lower the bar on the status of Nagorno-Karabakh”, which was the reason for this movement, Hakobyan said:
“The opposition understood this, that Artsakh is being “surrendered”. Now the prime minister has said at a government meeting that no action will be taken without broad public discussion. Didn’t they hear it? He said that Artsakh is not a thing to pass on”.
Expert commentary
Political observer Hakob Badalyan finds it difficult to assess the effectiveness of the opposition’s actions and say how events will develop. He says that so far the opposition is only copying the methods of struggle of the Velvet Revolution of 2018, led by the current Prime Minister Pashinyan. The opposition is not doing anything else yet, its behavior is uncertain, the expert believes.
According to him, one should understand what the goal of the opposition is, and not listen to the propaganda theses announced by them about the mistakes of the authorities.
“Undoubtedly, the task is to stimulate the crisis situation as much as possible”, says Hakob Badalyan.
But at the same time, he believes that the proclaimed goal of a change of power is still unattainable since there is not enough support from society:
“On the other hand, they may have sufficient human and material resources and are able to maintain constant tension for a long time, create an atmosphere of chaos, thereby forcing the political authorities to reckon with them”.
According to the observer, it is impossible to achieve political success by simply copying the methods of struggle of the last revolution, and the opposition does not have support from the population:
“The main reason is that this opposition is the former government. Society still feels the influence, to put it mildly, of the inefficiency of that power and a number of other factors arising from this circumstance. Because of this, it is practically impossible to have such a level of public support that will force the authorities to take into account all the demands of the opposition, including the resignation of the government.
The expert does not rule out that there may be external events that will affect the balance of power between the opposition and the authorities. But, according to him, this factor “contains the prospect of chaos and destabilization and not some kind of political solution”.
Hakob Badalyan believes that if the situation does not become unmanageable, this opposition movement can play in favor of the Armenian authorities, in particular, during the negotiations on Nagorno-Karabakh:
“In other words, this rebellion of the opposition, the protest can become an argument, a trump card in the hands of the political authorities for maneuvering in the external field. Especially at the moment, when we see that the external situation for Armenia, to put it mildly, is unfavorable”.
