Serzh Sarkisian Said To Stay In Politics

Former President Serzh Sarkisian has no plans to retire from active politics or resign as chairman of the Republican Party of Armenia (HHK), an HHK spokesman indicated late on Friday.

Eduard Sharmazanov insisted that Sarkisian did not leave the political arena when he stepped down as Armenia’s prime minister in April amid mass protests against his continued rule.

“There is no such issue on our agenda,” Sharmazanov told reporters when asked about possible changes in the leadership of the former ruling party.

“[Sarkisian] is the chairman of our party. We had elected him, our congress had elected him. The president still has something to say and to do,” he said after a meeting of the HHK’s governing board chaired by Sarkisian.

Sharmazanov made clear in that regard that the HHK is planning to hold its next congress in 2020, rather than this spring, as was suggested by some senior party figures earlier.

Sarkisian, who governed Armenia for ten years, has made very few public statements and appearances since his dramatic resignation which came two weeks before the protest leader, Nikol Pashinian, was elected the country’s prime minister. The protest movement was sparked by Sarkisian’s attempt to extend his decade-long rule after Armenia’s transformation into a parliamentary republic engineered by him.

Sarkisian did not run in snap parliamentary elections held on December 9. The HHK’s list of election candidates was headed by former Defense Minister Vigen Sargsian. Some observers suggested that the latter could soon replace the ex-president as HHK leader.

According to official election results, the HHK won only 4.7 percent of the vote, narrowly failing to clear the 5 percent threshold to enter the new parliament. Pashinian’s My Step bloc got as much as 70 percent.

Also, the new authorities brought embarrassing corruption charges against Sarkisian’s former chief bodyguard and one of his two brothers. The other brother had his $30 million Armenian bank account frozen by the National Security Service last summer. Pashinian demanded afterwards that Aleksandr Sarkisian “return the money to the state budget.”

“While Pashinian fought against us, we don’t fight against him,” said Sharmazanov. “We fight against policies which we believe do not serve the security of Armenia and Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh).”

Sharmazanov claimed that Pashinian’s government has made “many mistakes” since taking office in May. In particular, he denounced its plans to downsize the state bureaucracy by reducing the number of government ministries.