Former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s Armenian National Congress (HAK) on Friday effectively joined other opposition parties in voicing support for street protests in Yerevan against Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian’s territorial concessions to Azerbaijan.
The protest leader, Archbishop Bagrat Galstanyan, met with four senior members of the HAK earlier in the day as part of his continuing consultations with various political groups, public figures and professional associations aimed at invigorating his campaign for Pashinian’s resignation.
The HAK’s deputy chairman, Levon Zurabyan, said they discussed “the situation created in Armenia and ways to overcome the crisis in the field of security.”
“We believe that the revolt of broad sections of the people against the destructive policy of the authorities is justified,” Zurabyan told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service.
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“We are monitoring developments,” he said. “We expect that all political processes will take place in full conformity with the constitution and laws. We demand the authorities refrain from illegal repression and political persecution of participants of the protests.”
The 79-year-old Ter-Petrosyan, who rarely makes public appearances and statements, has not personally commented on the protests. Members of his entourage are not known to have actively participated in Galstanyan’s rallies held so far.
Speaking after the meeting with Zurabyan and three other senior HAK figures, Galstanyan said that Ter-Petrosyan’s party supports his movement “in one way or another.”
“There is a need to formalize, so to speak, that,” he told reporters. “They have concerns, proposals and ideas, and we are going to discuss the ideas floated by them publicly.”
Galstanyan has attracted support from a wide range of opposition forces, including the Hayastan and Pativ Unem alliances represented in the Armenian parliament. He said he will hold on Saturday a conference with “all of them” to discuss his further actions aimed at unseating Pashinian.
The outspoken archbishop also reaffirmed plans to resume major rallies in Yerevan. But he gave no dates.
Both Hayastan and Pativ Unem have pledged to attempt a parliamentary vote of no confidence in Pashinyan, whose Civil Contract party controls the National Assembly. The Armenian constitution requires them to nominate a prime-ministerial candidate ahead of such a vote. Neither opposition bloc has publicly backed any potential nominee.
Pativ Unem’s Tigran Abrahamyan said on Friday that his bloc led by another former president, Serzh Sarkisyan, is ready to endorse “the candidate who will be nominated by the movement and its leader.”
Galstanyan remained reluctant to speculate about potential nominees. “Ask political parties and politicians,” he said.
The 52-year-old cleric, who also has Canadian citizenship, has not ruled out the possibility of his own candidacy for the top government post despite fact that the Armenian constitution bars dual citizens from serving as prime minister.