Iravunk daily of Armenia writes as follows, in particular: A source close to the ruling system reports that yesterday’s campaign that took place against the Mother See [of Holy Etchmiadzin] was merely the preliminary attempt.

That is, the authorities were attempting with that to figure out how workable such a method is. “How many people they can send to Etchmiadzin, how many people will gather to defend the Catholicos, what room for action the Catholicos himself has, and so on. They understand that if [PM Nikol] Pashinyan decides to take part in such an action, it must unequivocally end in their victory.

Otherwise, if he goes and they are unable to force the Catholicos to resign, that will be a heavy personal defeat for Pashinyan. Therefore, as a trial, they pushed forward the already fully ‘discredited’ former clergymen, although everyone understood that behind the call to gather a crowd it was not really they, but Pashinyan,” the source said.

Our interlocutor also noted that yesterday’s operation did not inspire optimism in Pashinyan at all. That is, during the main attack, the likelihood of failure or a major uproar is very high. On the other hand, the situation is becoming panic-stricken. “As soon as the year changes, they practically enter the [parliamentary] elections’ phase, during which such actions become much more dangerous.

One mistake, and it can seriously reflect on the elections, and there will be no time left to fix the situation,” the source said. According to him, if they do not achieve the Catholicos’ resignation at least by mid-January, they may give up on that idea altogether.