YEREVAN. – If the Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) truly wanted to achieve regime change, it would have been more logical if they had gotten active before the parliamentary elections, political analyst Sergey Minasyan said at a press conference on Tuesday.

In his words, after the most recent developments in the country, the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) viewed the PAP’s activeness from the domestic political standpoint.

“This [activeness] was disturbing, and [therefore] the republicans decided to take their own steps to neutralize the PAP; the unprecedented RPA response was due to this,” Minasyan said.

But the analyst also expressed a view that the PAP had a false start.

“If the PAP really wanted to achieve a change of power, it would have been logical for them to get active at the threshold of the parliamentary elections. This would have enabled the PAP (…) to start an extensive campaign,” Sergey Minasyan noted.

As reported earlier, speaking at the February 12 meeting of the RPA Board, President Serzh Sargsyan, who is also chairman of the RPA Board, had stated that PAP Chairman, MP and oligarch Gagik Tsarukyan had become a vice for the country as a political player. He also relieved the PAP leader from his status as a National Security Council (NSC) member, and promised that a process will begin in connection with Tsarukyan’s frequent absence from the parliament sessions.

In response to President Sargsyan’s remarks, Gagik Tsarukyan stated, on February 13, 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 left this council earlier solely because of the President’s personal 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, but by way of lawful political methods.