YEREVAN. – Armenia’s main political opposition forces went along the path of division and this is ongoing, Nagorno-Karabakh Republic’s former FM Arman Melikyan stated during a press conference on Saturday.    

In his words, at present, the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) is the more influential force in the National Assembly and the PAP representatives wish to portray the party as Armenia’s main opposition force. The formerly-active political opposition, on the other hand, has exhausted its potential and has appeared in parliament in a depressed state. “This is the sole and final phase of their triumph,” Melikyan said.    

“The ruling power’s representative, [namely, President] Serzh Sargsyan is best positioned in the presidential [election] season. [But] We need a new quality for the political system,” he noted, and distinguished two factors in connection with next year’s elections. First, the ensuring of fair elections, and, second, the ruling power should have a worthy opponent that could receive the people’s votes.  

“I don’t think the opposition’s [single presidential] candidate will be able to defeat the authorities,” Arman Melikyan noted stressing that the other possibility is that the opposition political forces accept a neutral person—and by way of a consensus—as presidential candidate. “This could become a road to finding national unity once again,” he said.   

In Arman Melikyan’s conviction, neither First President Levon Ter-Petrosyan nor PAP leader Gagik Tsarukyan nor former FM and PAP’s second person Vartan Oskanian nor even the opposition ARF Dashnaktsutyun Party will be able to do anything alone plus they do not have the presidential candidate that will be acceptable for everyone.

Arman Melikyan noted that he stands ready to be nominated as a presidential candidate, but only if the political forces decide to seek a non-party-affiliate and consensus-based candidate, and if this would be a nomination supported by those citizens who do not want to tolerate the current situation.