Power struggle starts in Armenia

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

The political situation is getting closer to a collapse in Armenia amid the economic crisis. Fruitless policy of the incumbent regime periodically results in open protests from the opposition forces, which are united under a single name "troika." Heritage and Prosperous Armenia, and Armenian National Congress are the main driving opposition forces in Armenia to fight for the state power.

The Sargsyan-led regime seems to irritate also the former ruling elite of Armenia. Sargsyan's predecessor is now reportedly plotting a serious attack on the incumbent authorities in the post-Soviet country.

The former president of Armenia has gathered its supporters to create an anti-government club, according to local Armenian media. Haykanak Zhamanak, a Yerevan-based newspaper, said “well-informed sources” have leaked news about plans for forming a club of former high-ranking officials around Armenia's second President Robert Kocharyan.

The plan reportedly suggests the former top-echelon, who were sacked from office under incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan are expected to join the anti-Sargsyan club.

Among the potential members, the paper published the names of Nerses Nazarayan, former Chief of Yerevan Police, Andranik Mirzoyan, former Head of the Special Investigative Committee and Hovhannes Tamamyan, former Head of the General Department of Criminal Investigation.

Kocharyan has made a fresh scathing attack on Sargsyan on January 23, 2015, condemning the Armenian authorities for failing to put on trial a Russian soldier who killed seven members of a family in Gyumri in Armenia.

Kocharyan also called for radical changes in Armenia, which he said are needed to address the socioeconomic problems in the country given the possible deterioration of these problems amid recent accession to the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union.

Kocharian, who served as Armenia's president from between1998 and 2008, said Russia should also be interested in handing over Permyakov to Armenian jurisdiction in an effort to prevent an anti-Russian uproar in Armenia.

He reiterated his strong criticism of the Sargsyan administration’s policies, particularly in terms of managing the economy. Kocharyan claimed that if the economic policy remains unchanged in Armenia, it is totally unclear what policy can improve the situation from now on.

Kocharyan claimed that the incumbent authorities are doing nothing to cure the country’s fundamental ills. "Positions of the authorities and the society on the state of affairs in Armenia are diametrically opposite,” he said.

Calling the current regime's policy a "political monopoly" was undoubtedly Kocharyan's most scorching jibe to Sargsyan. He said only radical changes, which are now impeded by conflicting interests of ruling elite and country, would eradicate the ongoing evil in Armenia.

Over the past two years, Kocharian has been increasingly criticizing his presidential successor.

"The former president criticizes situation in Armenia without a hidden aspiration to return to politics," Lernik Aleksanyan, a member of Parliament from ruling Republican party, said following Kocharyan's comments on current situation in Armenia, in January 2014.

Many experts believe that Kocharyan is plotting a political comeback through Gagik Tsarukian, Head of the opposition-leaning Prosperous Armenia Party and businessman with a reported close ties with former president.

Kocharyan's periodical interviews to slam the incumbent authorities are interpreted by local observers as overt signs of his imminent rise to power in Armenia.

As the public dissatisfaction with Sargsyan's foreign and domestic policies is reaching its climax in and out of Armenia, former Foreign Minister Vardan Oskanyan is taking the stage to form a new front in a power struggle in Armenia. Armenianreport.com, a local media outlet, reported that he is preparing to mobilize his supporters in Slovakia's capital Bratislava, in an effort to lead a movement against the Armenian authorities.