YEREVAN. – Armenia’s opposition Heritage Party leader, former FM Raffi Hovannisian—who is declared runner-up to the winner, incumbent President Serzh Sargsyan, as a result of the presidential election that was conducted on February 18, but who claims to be the real winner in the vote and who declared a hunger strike on March 10 at capital city Yerevan’s Liberty Square—relies on the actions by the people, but the latter are incapable of taking active steps, sociologist Aharon Adibekyan stated during a press conference on Tuesday.

To the remark that the people simply are afraid of their bosses at their places of work, he stressed that this is a character trait of the Armenians.   

“It is necessary to change the psychology of the people, not the electoral system. If the people are afraid, they cannot achieve a result,” the sociologist stressed.

Adibekyan also recalled that Hovannisian claims that the incumbent President will take an oath of office solely upon his corpse.   

“It turns out that if Serzh Sargsyan does not run and give power over to Raffi Hovannisian, the latter must either set himself on fire, or kill [himself] because the inauguration will take place. What should Raffi Hovannisian do? How shall he become a corpse? This simply is an impasse,” Aharon Adibekyan concluded.