Your trusted source

At a meeting with his supporters on Monday, Armenia's second president Robert Kocharyan, the leader of the opposition Hayastan alliance, explained why he did not lead the mass anti-government protests organized by the opposition Resistance Movement in Yerevan this year.

“The questions may arise, “Why were not you on the podium? “Why were not you leading the crowd?” A leader must properly assess the situation, draw conclusions and take the right steps forward,” he said.

Kocharyan said a study of the 2021 snap parliamentary election results revealed two key factors which prevented his bloc from winning them.

He says two theses were put forward during the election campaign: "dignified peace", which was proposed by the Hayastan bloc, and "peace at any price", which was put forward by the ruling Civil Contract party. Kocharyan believes that his track record and the image of the leader who won the 1990s war against Azerbaijan “scared away” a large number of voters, who feared a new war.

"There are three kinds of reactions to an attack: you fight for your life, run away, surrender or play dead. It's more biology than psychology. It has affected the collective behavior of Armenian society," he noted.

The second factor, he said, is the division of society and politicians into “former” and “current” groups, natives of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. In his opinion, these ideas have been nurtured for many years and have left their imprint on the minds of people.

"To neutralize these two talking points, I took part in marches as an Armenian citizen, but I did not act as a leader. We did not achieve our ultimate goal, but for the first time in Armenia’s history there was such an organized and large-scale movement," he said.

Kocharyan assured that he would continue fighting.

“Yes, we'll be in the lead. But it may happen tomorrow morning, in three hours, in a week... That day is not far off, but it has to happen after a proper assessment of the situation. We're working on a different program right now, but I don't want to go into details,” he said.