Kocharian met with them late on Tuesday to discuss recent political developments and lingering challenges facing Armenia. The meeting reportedly brought together parliament deputies affiliated with Hayastan and other activists of the country’s leading opposition force.
A Hayastan statement on the meeting issued on Wednesday said Kocharian instructed them to “increase public activity at this moment fateful for the country” and “further step up contacts between the Alliance and the public.” It said he also told them to set up “even more efficient organizational structures in order to give new impetus to the Alliance’s activities.”
“Members of the Alliance reaffirmed their aim: to achieve as soon as possible the ouster of the government wrecking Armenia and leading it to destruction,” added the statement. It did not give other details.
Seyran Ohanian, Hayastan’s parliamentary leader, said Kocharian wants his political allies to first and foremost improve communication with Armenians unhappy with the country’s current leadership. The opposition bloc will at the same time remain ready to stage anti-government street protests, he said.
“If the current authorities take actions aimed at the fall of the Republic of Armenia and loss of its sovereignty then we will use all tools at our disposal … to prevent that,” Ohanian told reporters.
Hayastan won almost 22 percent of the vote and finished second in the June 20 parliamentary elections, according to their official results challenged by it court.
Like other opposition groups, Kocharian’s bloc holds Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian responsible for Armenia’s defeat in last year’s war in Nagorno-Karabakh. It also accuses Pashinian’s administration of failing to adequately deal with the country’s post-war security challenges.
Hayastan lawmakers repeated these accusations last month during the opening sessions of the new Armenian parliament marred by bitter verbal exchanges with pro-government deputies and even violent incidents.
Arusyak Julhakian, a deputy representing Pashinian’s Civil Contract party, claimed on Wednesday that the ex-president, who had ruled Armenia from 1998-2008, is dissatisfied with Hayastan’s work in the National Assembly. She also dismissed the bloc’s fresh pledges to keep fighting for regime change, saying that “the public doesn’t trust them.”