One of Armenia’s most prosperous businessmen returns to politics

Gagik Tsarukyan, ex-leader of the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP), stated that he was going to reopen a closed page of his political activity and, having formed a strong oppositional bloc, would stand for 2017 parliamentary elections.

According to Tsarukyan, he would have refrained from involvement in the political processes if he had been sure that Armenia was heading in a right direction, that the economy was developing and peoples’ welfare was boosting.

However, high rate of immigration, a weak and ailing economy, continuously growing poverty and unemployment rates, a sense of insecurity of the future in public, made him revise his decision to quit politics.

“It’s an important decision in my life, my cross that I ‘m going to bear till the end for the sake of Armenia and the Armenian nation,” Armenian’s most prosperous  businessman stated.

Gagik Tsarukyan quitted politics in 2015 due to the differences with Armenian President, Serzh Sargsyan. Their relations got tensed in mid-February 2015. Armenian President sharply criticized Tsarukyan’s activity, noting that the businessman had become an ‘evil’ to the country. Tsarukyan resigned from the PAP Chairman’s post in the beginning of March. Later, Tsarukyan’s relations with the Armenian President normalized.

Therefore, Tsarukyan’s return to politics causes mixed reactions and gives political analysts the grounds to think that the authorities are going to use him as ‘a pocket’ opposition.