By Susanna Petrosyan, Yerevan. Exclusively for Vestnik Kavkaza
Since September 7, Paruyr Hayrikyan, the leader of the Union for National Self-Determination (UNSD), has been protesting and demanding the resignation of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. Hayrikyan plans to hold a daily hunger strike from 5.00pm to 6.00pm at the presidential palace and will not stop until the president leaves his post. Hayrikyan has not clarified the terms, he has only sent a letter with his demands to the Presidential Administration.
In Hayrikyan's words, his supporters were persuading him to quit the strike, claiming that such a form of protest has lost any value in Armenia. He believes that the demonstration would draw public attention to the president's policy. "The Armenian authorities have been a total failure in their policy and should admit it publicly. One cannot stay in power for seven years and do absolutely nothing," insists the activist.
Hayrikyan has spent a total of 17 years in jail. He blamed the president for planning to join the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU). He is confident that Armenia should have chosen the European path of development on September 3 instead of joining the Customs Union (CU). That is Hayrikyan's main motive for the resignation of Sargsyan. He has already taken part in many protests against the CU and the EaEU.
Hayrikyan's hunger strike has three curiosities. Firstly, the format of the hunger strike remains vague, the politician plans to protest for just one hour a day at the presidential residence. Hayrikyan plans to spend the rest of the time praying in church. Maybe Hayrikyan is trying not to turn the strike into a show.
The content of the protest is uncertain too. Considering Hayrikyan's accusations of imperialist policy in Russia, attempts to provoke a war in the zone of the Karabakh conflict, urged to keep sovereignty and leave the Russian Empire, it can be figured that Russia, not the Armenian authorities, is the main target of the demonstration. To counter-balance that, the four opposition parties (Dashnaktsutyun, Prosperous Armenia, Armenian National Congress, Heritage) have 12 demands they want the government to comply with, including financial, economic and social issues. The foreign policy point contains only one demand: to sign no documents that would harm Nagorno-Karabakh. The four have always been accusing the government of inconsistency and lack of providence. Neither Russia nor the U.S. nor the EU are in the orbit of their criticism. Few protests organized against Armenia's joining the EaEU find understanding or support in a society focused on socio-economic problems.
And thirdly, hunger-striking Hayrikyan, so confident of the need for the president's resignation, has not outlined his attitude towards a similar demand by the Armenian National Congress and the Heritage Party that has joined the slogan too.
"No offense to Paruyr Hayrikyan, but I think he should not be the one to demand the resignation of Serzh Sargsyan. He understands well that Serzh Sargsyan would not leave because of a demand in his letter. We have been demanding his resignation for many years, we do it practically, not with a letter," says Armenian National Congress member Lyudmila Sarkisyan. In her opinion, Sargsyan will have to resign soon anyway because "his presidency terms have always been followed by bad luck and failures, it cannot continue forever."
The opposition demands that the government fulfil the 12 demands by September 30. Should the government refuse, the opposition would organize a joint protest, despite the fact that the main tension in domestic policy is about the balance between the government and the opposition quartet. The Armenian opposition has consolidated, it is developing a common agenda. Civil initiatives and the quartet are cooperating. They have already fought against the compulsory accumulative pension system and filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court. The topicality and the effect of Hayrikyan's demonstration on public opinion and the president's decision is nil.
