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    Categories: 2021

RFE/RL Armenian Report – 03/13/2021

                                        Saturday, 

Armenian PM, President Discuss Possible Snap Elections


Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian and President Armen Sarkissian, March 
13, 2021

Armenian President Armen Sarkissian on Saturday met with Prime Minister Nikol 
Pashinian as part of discussions initiated by him to defuse the current 
political crisis in the country.

According to the president’s press office, during their meeting Sarkissian and 
Pashinian discussed “the situation in the country, ways of resolving it and 
overcoming the internal political crisis.”

“In this context, they discussed holding early parliamentary elections as a 
solution,” the report disseminated by the president’s press office said.

The Pashinian government has been under pressure to resign after Armenia 
suffered a defeat in a six-week war with Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh last 
fall.

Opposition parties and groups demanding Pashinian’s resignation renewed their 
street protests in late February.

Earlier this week President Sarkissian offered to host talks between Pashinian 
and opposition leaders aimed at ending the political crisis in Armenia.

The leaders of the pro-government My Step parliamentary faction and one of the 
two opposition factions, Bright Armenia, accepted the invitation to the talks 
set for March 13 and their meetings with President Sarkissian were held later 
today.

In a statement disseminated late on Friday, the president’s office said that the 
two other sides invited to the talks – the parliamentary opposition Prosperous 
Armenia Party (BHK) and the Homeland Salvation Movement, an alliance of about a 
dozen political parties and groups, including the BHK, demanding Prime Minister 
Pashinian’s resignation in the street – had proposed their own agendas and set 
conditions for the meeting, which made the format of talks in which all invited 
parties would meet at one table “unfeasible.”

As Pashinian visited the presidential compound in a heavily guarded motorcade, 
supporters of the Homeland Salvation Movement staged more protests in the 
adjacent boulevard that they have been blocking since late February.

The opposition movement continues to insist that Pashinian must step down and a 
provisional government led by its leader Vazgen Manukian should be formed before 
snap parliamentary elections can be held in a year.

Ishkhan Saghatelian, one of the leaders of the movement, said that in order to 
be able to discuss their possible participation in snap elections, first 
Pashinian must step down and then the parliament must be dissolved.

“The prime minister’s resignation and dissolution of parliament should take 
place before snap elections can be held. If these two processes are completed 
and we will have snap elections ahead, we will express our position on whether 
we take part in these elections, and if we do, then in what format. But 
[Pashinian’s] resignation should come first,” he said, talking to media.

Talking to several media on Friday, the leader of the BHK, Gagik Tsarukian, 
announced his upcoming meeting with Prime Minister Pashinian. He said that 
Pashinian must resign and snap parliamentary elections must be held in the 
country as early as possible to end the current political crisis.

Unlike it was before, Tsarukian did not appear to insist on electing a new prime 
minister in parliament and forming any provisional government before holding 
preterm elections at some point in the future.

Earlier, Edmon Marukian, the leader of the other opposition Bright Armenia 
faction in parliament, said his faction was ready not to field any candidate if 
Pashinian resigned to clear the way for snap elections.

Pashinian enjoys a comfortable majority in the Armenian parliament and 
practically does not need any assurance on the part of the opposition to resign 
and ensure that the parliament twice fails to elect a new prime minister for 
snap elections to be appointed. He and his political team, however, have sought 
such assurances from the two opposition factions to exclude any risks of 
political upheavals in the country.


Reprinted on ANN/Armenian News with permission from RFE/RL
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Jack Hunanian: