Today official representative of ‘Armenia’ bloc Aram Vardevanyan submitted to the Central Electoral Commission an application on my decision to drop the mandate of Member of Parliament. This is what second President of Armenia, leader of the opposition ‘Armenia’ bloc Robert Kocharyan wrote on his Facebook page, adding the following:

“It so happened that I have been a deputy of the parliaments of both Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) and Armenia, but due to my personality, I have always been a person who is in government. I am certain that the right thing to do now is to cede to my teammates, and I am sure that each of them will be a good deputy.

With this, I am giving my consent to thousands of my teammates who expressed the view that I shouldn’t be tempted by the mandate of a deputy after holding the position of President of the Republic of Artsakh and President of the Republic of Armenia. After all, people were casting their votes for me as candidate for Prime Minister.

At the same time, I deem it necessary to stress that not being in parliament doesn’t mean I am not going to continue the struggle. The parliamentary faction is the presence of the bloc in the National Assembly, and I am still the leader of the bloc and will contribute to our future victories through daily and consistent efforts.

I am certain that everything will be alright.

Robert Kocharyan”