YEREVAN. – The leaders of the RPA and the PAP—that is, President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also chairman of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) Board, and Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) Chairman Gagik Tsarukyan—are attempting an artificial polarization of power in the country.

Opposition National Self-Determination Union (NSU) Chairman, ex-presidential candidate Paruyr Hayrikyan, told the above-said at a press conference on Saturday.

“One pole, which has centralized everything in Armenia at its disposal, is trying to divide it into two parts. This game is played so that the [Armenian] society is completely at their disposal,” Hayrikyan noted.

In his words, the remarks by the RPA and the PAP leaders had not even referred to the liberation of the Armenian people and the strengthening of the Armenian state which, as per the ex-presidential candidate, are the most important.

“There is no word on independence at the basis if the remark[s],” he added.

The NSU leader also maintained that Serzh Sargsyan and Gagik Tsarukyan are ordered from “above”—that is, from Russia—to “eat each other.”

“And they do it by crossing any boundary,” Paruyr Hayrikyan concluded.

As reported earlier, speaking at Thursday’s meeting of the board of RPA, President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also chairman of the RPA Board, had stated that PAP Chairman, MP and oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan the political player had become a vice for the country. He also relieved the PAP leader from his status as a National Security Council member, and promised that a process will begin in connection with Tsarukyan’s frequent absence from the NA sessions.

In response to President Sargsyan’s remarks, Gagik Tsarukyan on Friday stated that the incumbent authorities must be removed from power immediately. Reflecting on Sargsyan having him removed from the NSC, the PAP leader noted that he had not formally left this council earlier solely because of the President’s personal human request. As for the plans to strip him of his parliamentary mandate, Tsarukyan said the important thing for him is the trust of the Armenian citizens, and therefore he possesses the most important mandate. In addition, the Prosperous Armenia Party chairman urged to achieve Serzh Sargsyan’s resignation by way of lawful political methods.