Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan on Thursday met with Edmon Marukyan, chairman of the opposition Bright Armenia Party (BAP) and head of its parliamentary faction, at the government.

In his remarks, the PM noted as follows in particular: "If the parliamentary forces finally decide to hold snap elections (…), then we can consider that the matter is resolved.

From the beginning, our idea was that, ultimately, this political phase should end with the will of the people, and today I will be glad to hear your views on how to move forward.

Maybe we will present the situation to the President of the republic, too, so that he also expresses his position at this phase, and in some way becomes the guarantor of the implementation of the process, of our agreements."

In his turn, Marukyan said as follows in part: "I want to start with the proposal first. (…). I had suggested that we stop the army-government conflict and go for [snap parliamentary] elections because it is obvious that we cannot have any agreement on the pre-election process until the army issue is resolved.

(…) let's resolve this part together and go to elections. In our case, we do not have any obstacles related to the election. But I also agree with you that we continue the talks."

Pashinyan considered it inadmissible to link the matter of the General Staff of the Armed Forces with the snap elections, emphasizing the Constitutional norm specifying that the Armed Forces are apolitical.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and BAP Edmon Marukyan agreed to continue consultations in order to resolve the political crisis in Armenia.