There is absolutely nothing in common between what is happening today and what happened in February 2015. This is what Speaker of the National Assembly of Armenia Ararat Mirzoyan told reporters today.

“In 2015, Mr. Tsarukyan gave a speech as an opposition member, the Republican Party of Armenia held a session, and there were statements about blackmailing. In 2015, there was direct blackmail against Tsarukyan. The current authorities don’t accept this at all, and as you saw, a legal procedure has to continue in spite of the statements of opposition parties that might please or not please the authorities.

If we accept that blackmail is a normal process, perhaps the political calculations would show that the authorities might need to negotiate with Mr. Tsarukyan, not have a parliamentary party demanding the government’s resignation, hope to come to terms and move on, but this wouldn’t be sincere,” the parliamentary speaker said.