Former President Levon Ter-Petrosyan’s Armenian National Congress, or HAK, has indicated that it is prepared to begin a process of political consolidation with billionaire Samvel Karapetyan’s party ahead of Armenia’s upcoming parliamentary elections.
Speaking at the HAK congress on March 14, Levon Zurabyan, the party’s deputy chairman and its candidate for prime minister, said the time has come to unite the country’s major opposition forces and pointed specifically to cooperation with Karapetyan’s Strong Armenia party.
“It is necessary to unite all influential democratic, rational, realistic political forces. Therefore, we declare that for that purpose we are ready to begin the consolidation process together with the Strong Armenia party and other opposition forces,” Zurabyan told delegates.
His comments followed remarks made two weeks earlier by Ter-Petrosyan himself, who openly praised Karapetyan and effectively signaled support for him ahead of the June 7 parliamentary elections.
The 81-year-old former president, who led Armenia to independence in 1991, said in late February that only Karapetyan is capable of uniting what he described as the country’s fragmented opposition.
“One must finally understand that the unification of the opposition is not a political issue but simply a matter of saving the nation,” Ter-Petrosyan said at the time.
Although he did not attend the HAK congress in person, Ter-Petrosyan sent an address to party delegates in which he said he has a “feeling” that a victory by the opposition in the coming elections could bring about a serious transformation in Armenia.
Strong Armenia emerged out of the Mer Dzevov movement launched by Karapetyan in late August, two months after he was arrested following sharp criticism of Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s efforts to remove Catholicos Garegin II, the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Karapetyan was initially detained on accusations that he had called for the violent overthrow of the government. He was later charged with tax evasion, fraud, and money laundering. He denies all of the charges and says they are politically motivated.
His party is widely expected to be one of Pashinyan’s main challengers in the June 7 elections. Strong Armenia has already announced that Karapetyan, who remains under house arrest, will be its candidate for prime minister.
Under Armenia’s constitution, however, Karapetyan is ineligible to serve as prime minister because he also holds Russian citizenship. Strong Armenia has said it would seek to remove that constitutional barrier if it comes to power.
Zurabyan said Ter-Petrosyan is trying to contribute to opposition unity from a position above party competition, even as HAK continues to advance its own program during the campaign.
“Ter-Petrosyan is trying to contribute to consolidation by assuming a supra-party posture, but in our election campaign, naturally, we are presenting our own program, and we are confident that no one will implement it better than us,” Zurabyan said.
“At the same time, Ter-Petrosyan believes, and perhaps rightly so, that Samvel Karapetyan can carry out the work of consolidation more effectively,” he added.
Strong Armenia did not immediately respond to the HAK proposal. But speaking at the congress, Artur Mikayelyan, a representative of Karapetyan’s party, thanked extra-parliamentary forces that believe victory will come not through rivalry, but through unity.
“Armenia has strength. Armenia has potential. Armenia has worthy people. What we need is not a hero, but consolidation, not a miracle, but will and the right direction. We are on that path. And that path will be twice as steady if we go along it together,” he said.
The HAK congress was also attended by representatives of several other opposition groups, including Edmon Marukyan’s Bright Armenia party. Marukyan likewise voiced support for broader opposition unity ahead of the elections.
Pashinyan, for his part, has accused Karapetyan and other opposition forces of advancing Moscow’s agenda, while expressing confidence that his ruling Civil Contract party will once again win a decisive victory.
