The absence of the opposition Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) and its program—the Proposal to Armenia—will always be felt in the new National Assembly. This is noted in a statement by the PAP’s detained chairman, businessman Gagik Tsarukyan.

The statement adds as follows:

“The reason is not the lack of competent and prepared figures; there are such MPs in all factions. The problem is the lack of other perspectives, alternative effective solutions, other proposed programmatic approaches, and the complete absence of the full force bearing them.

By and large, I had prepared my team for a deep programmatic struggle, which unfortunately did not work out and not at all through our fault.

As you know, in the last 10-15 years I have not been involved in the micromanagement of any business, current management processes (both the law did not allow it, and in reality it was no longer interesting to me), and this was enabling me to look at the economy of Armenia, its development risks, and potential from a macro perspective. Now as well, being cut off from many information flows, political-public microprocesses, microrelations, I have the opportunity to look at the problems from a macro perspective. I do not use the wording ‘look from the sidelines,’ because with my life story, as Tsarukyan, I cannot and have never been able to look from the sidelines at the processes taking place in my country. If I could, if I had the ability to be a certain indifference to my country, then I would have been in completely different conditions. And that is my type.

What do I see now, with that view?

I see that Armenia faces a high probability of upheavals. Moreover, it is not about a theoretical future, but about a very real, months-long perspective. Without blinking an eye, we [i.e. Armenia] will find ourselves in a very difficult situation. Only the risks brought by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the Iran-US confrontation are enough to understand this.

I am extremely concerned about the economic problems of our country, and the question of the choice artificially imposed on us: the EU or the EAEU. Both the West and Russia are posing such a sharp choice before us, but the problem is that we ourselves have brought ourselves to such a harsh, artificial watershed.

Add to the situation the Azerbaijani demands, the Turkish exhortations.

This is no longer a question of sitting on two chairs, as many naively think. Two chairs in any case provide an opportunity for choice. This is a situation where any decision, any step can bring serious risks, serious counteraction from the opposite side.

What are we going to do now so that our small Armenia does not get into major geopolitical upheavals. This is the most real national agenda today.

I don’t know how long this parliament will work; I hear different versions. But as long as my political force, I as a leader, and my narrow team of colleagues with whom we always discuss such issues, exist, we will take this line. Armenia should not enter into upheavals due to geopolitical motivations. There are ways, there are steps to remove the sharpness, to not be ‘underfoot’ during the clashes of the strong. 

We are obligated to remove our country from these ultimatum resolutions. This is no longer a matter of the authorities-opposition struggle. Everyone will bear the losses, without exception. This worries me very much. There are solutions, maybe they are not easy, maybe they are complicated, maybe they require great effort, but they exist.”