The two opposition parties represented in Armenia’s parliament said on Friday that they have no plans to join forces with former President Robert Kocharian in challenging the current government.
Kocharian, who was arrested in December on coup charges, predicted the emergence of a new and “powerful” opposition force in the country in written comments to the Reuters news agency published on Wednesday. He said he will be personally involved in the emerging opposition but did not elaborate. Nor did the ex-president clarify who else could join it.
Gevorg Gorgisian, a leader of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (LHK), ruled out the possibility of any cooperation with Kocharian. “I also exclude that he will manage to form an opposition front that could become a serious factor in the Armenian political scene,” Gorgisian told RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
“Kocharian no doubt has financial and other resources accumulated over time by various means, which in theory could have an impact,” he said. “But our society doesn’t have a short memory and shouldn’t be underestimated. Everyone remembers the country’s losses suffered during the Republican Party’s rule and the criminal-oligarchic system which we had to deal with on a daily basis.”
A senior representative of the other parliamentary opposition force, the Prosperous Armenia Party (BHK), said it has received no cooperation proposals from Kocharian and has different priorities. Mikael Melkumian also stressed that the BHK supported last year’s “velvet revolution” which toppled Republican Party (HHK) leader Serzh Sarkisian’s government.
“It doesn’t mean that we agree with everything that’s happening now,” Melkumian said, citing government policies opposed by the BHK.
The BHK’s founding leader, businessman Gagik Tsarukian, became one of Armenia’s richest men and developed close ties with Kocharian during the latter’s 1998-2008 rule. At least until 2015, Tsarukian’s party was regarded by some observers as a Kocharian’s support base.
Melkumian made clear that unlike Kocharian, the BHK sees no political motives behind the criminal charges brought against the ex-president.
Kocharian’s arrest and prosecution has been condemned by two other opposition parties not represented in the current parliament: the former ruling HHK and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutyun). The HHK spokesman, Eduard Sharmazanov, renewed on Friday his party’s calls for Kocharian’s immediate release from jail.
Sharmazanov did not exclude the HHK’s cooperation with Kocharian. “The Republican Party is prepared to cooperate with all those political forces whose political agenda will match our agenda,” he said.
A Dashnaktsutyun leader, Ishkhan Saghatelian, sounded more ambiguous on this score. “We haven’t had discussions with anyone,” he said. “It makes no sense to talk now about what could happen later on.”
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