Ara Saghatelyan: Nikol Pashinyan refuses to step down because of his fears
Nikol Pashinyan is guided only by his own fears – both as an ordinary man and as a person holding the post of the Armenian prime minister, former National Assembly Chief of Staff Ara Saghatelyan told Pastinfo, referring to the events that took place at the Yerablur Military Pantheon in Yerevan on December 19.
“I don't see a political process here. I see some kind of instinctive process to hold some positions or to prove something to someone,” Saghatelyan said.
According to him, what happened at Yerablur is a very painful and regrettable phenomenon. “You cannot lead people to a mourning procession using the administrative resources. It was a total disgrace in front of the whole world, because the world saw who is ruling the country,” Saghatelyan added.
According to him, Nikol Pashinyan refuses to step down as prime minister because of his fears, or he has unfinished plans that he needs to complete. At the same time, Ara Saghatelyan expressed confidence that these plans are not in the interests of Armenia and the Armenian people.
“Nikol Pashinyan and his team have no political future. Tales about snap elections will lead to nowhere, because the approach they have expressed, according to which they allegedly enjoy the support and trust of the majority of people, does not correspond to reality. We must face the truth and resort to a simple mathematical calculation, around which one can polemize and disagree, but the fact remains,” he said.
“At a time, the political force headed by Nikol Pashinyan garnered 70% of the vote with a voter turnout of less than 50%. In fact, based on the total number of voters, they received 34.14% of the vote. This was their peak, when everyone was looking forward to changes, everyone sought to live well and happily. Obviously, these 34% are long gone. 48% of the vote is passive voting in a situation, where the country is collapsed and people are in a grave psychological state. If elections are held tomorrow, 65-70% and more voters will take part in them. People will come out and try to defend themselves with their votes, while Nikol Pashinyan’s team will secure only 10-15%, maybe 20% of the vote. If these people make it to the parliament with less than 50% of the vote, they will face very difficult and negative circumstances, when the political forces, which received 50% plus 1 votes, initiate a number of processes, both political and legal, and in a shortest possible period these people will find themselves in a much more difficult situation than they could imagine, "Saghatelyan noted, adding that Pashinyan's team realizes this too.
He urged Nikol Pashinyan to leave politics to give an opportunity to "denikolize" those people who sometime believed in him and teamed up with him, but many of them regret it now, only staying with him due to some fears or threats.