Ter-Petrosian Bloc Vows New Push For ‘Regime Change’

The opposition Armenian National Congress (HAK) reaffirmed on Monday its stated intention to use the upcoming parliamentary elections for another attempt to bring down President Serzh Sarkisian.

Levon Zurabian, the number two figure in the HAK leadership, said the alliance regards the unfolding parliamentary race as a “platform for generating popular resentment and civic protests against the regime … and expressing no confidence in Serzh Sarkisian.”

The HAK’s top leader, former President Levon Ter-Petrosian said last October that the bloc will seek to gain “weighty presence” in the next parliament in order to impeach Sarkisian “single-handedly or in an alliance with other forces.” That statement followed the HAK’s failure to clinch more concessions from the government.

Ter-Petrosian indicated in September that the HAK could reconsider its demands for snap presidential and parliamentary elections in case of a “reasonable compromise” with the Sarkisian administration. The latter never officially responded to the offer.

Zurabian confirmed that the 18 opposition parties and other organizations aligned in the HAK officially decided on Friday to jointly contest the parliamentary elections scheduled for May. He said the HAK’s governing Political Council will start discussing their list of election candidates later on Monday.

“We have no illusions, we don’t think that will be an easy task,” Zurabian told a news conference. “Today the authorities have serious expectations that the HAK will fail to reach an agreement on that issue … But that’s OK, we will again disappoint them.”

According to some media reports, there are already disagreements among HAK party leaders over whose name should be high on their common electoral slate.