Ex-president Kocharyan not sure about contesting possible snap parliamentary elections
Ex-president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, who is head of the opposition alliance Hayastan (Armenia), which controls the second-largest number of seats in the National Assembly, declined today speculations that he seeks to become the country’s next prime minister or president, telling a press conference that none of these positions is an end in itself for him.
YEREVAN, December 27. /ARKA/. Ex-president of Armenia Robert Kocharyan, who is head of the opposition alliance Hayastan (Armenia), which controls the second-largest number of seats in the National Assembly, declined today speculations that he seeks to become the country’s next prime minister or president, telling a press conference that none of these positions is an end in itself for him.
Asked whether he would take part in possible snap parliamentary elections, he said he would have to assess the situation and his chances of being elected.
"We have entered the struggle and must fight without reserve; we must strive to free ourselves from the current government. But I do not see my becoming president or prime minister as an end in itself," he said.
The former president noted that he could have joined the struggle immediately after November 9, 2020 (when a trilateral statement was signed by the leaders of Armenia, Russia and Azerbaijan to end the war in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone, but he chose to support Vazgen Manukyan, the opposition candidate for interim prime minister.
Kocharyan said also he is a supporter of the semi-presidential form of government, but believes it is wrong for each new political force coming to power to change the Constitution.
"No president in Armenia has had as much power as the prime minister has today. This is not normal, but redistribution of powers can be done through laws. For example, you can take the investigative agencies completely out of the prime minister's jurisdiction," he explained.
Kocharyan, who ruled Armenia from 1998-2008 is standing trial on corruption charges. In late July Kocharyan refused to take up his seat in Armenia’s new parliament, elected in the June 20 early elections.
He said in the statement that he had served as lawmaker- first in Nagorno-Karabakh and then in Armenia, ‘but by virtue of my character I have always been a person of executive power.”
The Hayastan (Armenia) alliance controls 29 seats in the parliament and another alliance called Pativ Unem (I Have the Honor), led by Artur Vanetsyan, former chief of the National Security Service, has 7 seats in the 107-member parliament.
Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s Civil Contract party that won 53.91% of the votes in the June 20 snap parliamentary elections controls 71 seats. -0-