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The notion of ‘opposition’ is in danger in the Armenian reality, member of Sardarapat movement, film director Tigran Khzmalyan told a news conference on Tuesday. 

“If Gagik Tsarukyan is a representative of opposition, then many will be ashamed to call themselves oppositionists. If PAP is opposition, then we are the authorities,” Khzmalyan said.

The film director said that the main mistake of all opposition movements in Armenia’s history, including the movements led by first Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosyan in 2008 and by Heritage leader Raffi Hovannisian in 2013, is that their leaders “tried to replace the change of system by the change of power.”

“The change of power is a necessary but not sufficient condition. It is merely a change of posts,” Khzmalyan said.

“On April 9, the people demanded a political program and we presented it to the Heritage just like we once presented it to the Armenian National Congress (ANC). Now we are going to present it ourselves, and are not going to join anyone. The Pre-parliament civil initiative is open to everyone. Raffi Hovannisian often repeated, “Lower the party flags.” But on April 9, he himself held up a party flag,” Khzmalyan said, adding that the pubic may familiarize with their program during rallies, on May 9 in Gyumri and May 17 in Yerevan.