Every politician, former president or a citizen of Armenia decides for himself to put his candidacy in the elections, after consulting with his team said the spokesperson of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia Eduard Sharmazanov in a conversation with Armenian News-NEWS.am. Sharmazanov commented on the interview of the second president Robert Kocharyan, where the former announced his decision not to run for the elections.

“A month ago I said that no matter who will run for the elections, they will be competing for the second place. Republican Party and the incumbent president have worked very honestly, very fair, very transparent and, most importantly, went through dialogue and agreement over these years,” Sharmazanov said.

Recall that Robert Kocharyan identified three main factors that encourage him to refrain from returning to active politics.

“The first thing is that the struggle for power between two people from Karabakh, two longtime allies for me is unacceptable: it would create a situation of difficult choice for many, and would be transformed into an object of manipulations. Also, I was the one who suggested the incumbent president as my successor, and his desire for re-election is understandable. Second, I would not want to take part in the formation of an extremely unpleasant and dangerous format for the country, the struggle for power of the three presidents. And third, search for a political compromise in Armenia has become a political retail trade. And it is not something that I would like to spend my time, knowledge and experience on.

These circumstances, of course, are not the main factors, but I thought that these factors are rather important from the emotional and ethical point of view. As a reason, I will give only short interviews, but only in those cases where no response would be incomprehensible," Kocharyan said.