YEREVAN. – Armenia’s former FM Vartan Oskanian’s becoming a member in the ruling coalition’s Prosperous Armenia Party (PAP) is his own decision, and this cannot weaken the coalition’s Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), the latter’s MP and businessman Manvel Badeyan said during a press conference on Friday. 

In his words, however, Oskanian had never left politics at all. 

“This has nothing to do with RPA and it cannot weaken RPA, just as it cannot discredit PAP,” Badeyan argued, and added that they are not crying over Vartan Oskanian becoming a PAP member.

He also deemed comical the argument that those who cannot find themselves a spot in RPA’s proportional election list, for the upcoming parliamentary elections, could become members in PAP.  

The press conference’s other speaker, former FM of Nagorno Karabakh Republic Arman Melikyan, noted that Vartan Oskanian resorted to somewhat of a loyal step, which is tactical prior to the elections. From this viewpoint, as per Melikyan, this step is justified, and it is not a unique case in the Armenian scene.