YEREVAN. – The thing that Karen Karapetyan did not come to the meeting means that there is an uncertain situation at the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) because yesterday they were stating that they are ready for talks without any preconditions, but as you can see, now my backpack occupies the place of Karen Karapetyan.

Nikol Pashinyan, opposition Civil Contract Party Political Council member and National Assembly (NA) “Way Out” (Yelk) Faction head, on Friday noted the aforesaid at a press conference.

“Our position is well known,” Pashinyan said. “We believe that the people’s victory should be recorded de jure, too; that is, the matter is whether the [ruling] RPA wants to resolve the crisis. If an RPA member is elected Prime Minister, the crisis will not be resolved.

“We will continue our pacific actions and try to explain to the RPA members, also to [Acting PM and RPA Vice Chairman] Karen Karapetyan—as we explained to [ex-President, ex-PM, and RPA leader] Serzh Sargsyan, that they don’t realize the current political situation in Armenia.”

In his words, on May 1, when the NA will start debates on the election of the new PM, he expects to see hundreds of thousands of Armenian citizens in the streets of capital city Yerevan.

When asked why Karapetyan is not coming for talks, Pashinyan responded: “I believe Karen Karapetyan isn’t sure about his negotiating powers. And if he isn’t sure about his negotiating powers, how is he going to negotiate on the [Nagorno] Karabakh [(Artsakh)] issue?”

After 11-day nationwide protest actions by the Nikol Pashinyan-led movement, ex-President and RPA leader Serzh Sargsyan on Monday resigned from his recently-elected post of Prime Minister.

Subsequently, Pashinyan announced that they will continue negotiations with the incumbent authorities on Wednesday, and toward achieving a smooth transfer of power in Armenia. But it became clear on Tuesday evening that this talk would not take place.  

Acting PM and RPA Vice Chairman Karen Karapetyan stated that Pashinyan had posited new, unilateral demands.

Nikol Pashinyan, in turn, announced that they are resuming their protests as of Wednesday, since the RPA wants to retain power at the expense of Sargsyan’s resignation.

And on Thursday, Pashinyan invited Karapetyan to start the second round of negotiations on Friday, and before the media.

But Aram Araratyan, the spokesperson of Karen Karapetyan, on Friday issued a statement, according to which the acting PM considers “negotiations” with Nikol Pashinyan viewless, and therefore he refused to take part.