Former Armenian president Robert Kocharyan’s return to politics is impossible, the republic's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said, commenting on Kocharyan's statement on his political plans.
Asked whether he was concerned about Robert Kocharyan’s return to politics, Pashinyan said: "You speak about scenarios which just can’t be."
To the question of whether it is possible that RPA parliamentary group members can vote to elect Robert Kocharyan as next Armenian PM, Pashinyan answered: "To tell the truth I don’t see that happening. I just wanted to show that the situation needs to be evaluated realistically in order to avoid any complications. If you remember I told Serzh Sargsyan during our last meeting that he just doesn’t get the gist of the situation," News.am cited Pashinyan as saying.
According to the PM, the Republican Party with its ruling elite does not evaluate the situation correctly. "There is no need to take any measures. We just need to talk to these people, introduce the situation and help them get the gist. There is no need to take any extra measures," he added.
In addition, the Armenian PM said that he is ready to meet the head of Armenian National Assembly Ara Babloyan.
"Yes, I will meet Babloyan. Why not? I will meet and discuss everything with him so that no one has doubts left. No steps or intentions should be against the Constitution and the ideology of love and harmony. It is very important for all our citizens, including MPs and others to understand the logic of all our political activities," Pashinyan stressed.
The director of the Armenian branch of the CIS Institute, Alexander Markarov, speaking with the correspondent of Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that at the moment Kocharyan has no chance to become Armenia's PM. "The RPA no longer enjoys a majority. Therefore, if there is a hypothetical situation of electing a prime minister (if Pashinyan resigns or new parliamentary elections take place, or the prime minister is the subject of a vote of no confidence), the RPA will not be able to nominate its candidate, since it can onlybe done by a party or coalition representing the majority. But it's not the fact that after the elections the Republicans will retain the current number of seats," he said.
"The most important question in Kocharyan's promise to return to politics - which political force he will rely on. For 10 years Kocharyan was out of the political stage, he periodically made various statements on issues in that RPA policy. At the same time, officially we have heard nothing from the RPA about the intention to cooperate with Kocharyan. The only party that announced the possible cooperation with Kocharyan is ARF Dashnaktsutyun. But whether will it be a repetition of the 1998-2003 format, when the Dashnaks supported Kocharyan as a presidential candidate, although he was not a member of any party? Of course, the creating of a support structure for Kocharyan is possible, but so far there is no visible political force which at least announced its support," Alexander Markarov added.
