YEREVAN. – Hraparak newspaper of the Republic of Armenia (RA) writes: In recent days, Serzh Sargsyan's office has been working on a statement by which, apparently, it will be declared roughly that the RA third president expresses his support for the struggle being waged for the salvation of Artsakh [(Nagorno-Karabakh)] and Armenia, and expresses readiness to leave the [political] arena, not to seek power—giving up the baton to the younger generation.

We were told that Azatich [i.e., Serzh Sargsyan] is negotiating with the first and second presidents that there be a joint statement. But if [it] does not succeed, it is not ruled out that the statement will be in the format of an appeal to them.

Let us remind that even before the 2021 [snap parliamentary] elections, [First President Levon] Ter-Petrosyan also had made a similar proposal, and now [second President] Robert Kocharyan also does not seem to be against it. They told us that several discussions had taken place these days on this issue, and the second president also said that he was not against passing the baton to the youth.

However, after [Artur] Vanetsyan [the leader of the opposition "With Honor" Faction of the National Assembly and chairman of the opposition Homeland party of Armenia] started a sit-in at Freedom Square, some Kocharyan and pro-Kocharyan circles continue to claim that their leader is Robert Kocharyan, and only he can get the country out of this situation.