Your trusted source

At a news conference on Wednesday, a Panorama.am correspondent asked second President Robert Kocharyan to explain why no one led the crowd at the September 14 spontaneous protest outside the Armenian parliament.

The question and the answer are provided below.

Panorama.am: Immediately after Pashinyan's statement signaling his readiness to sign a peace treaty, thousands of people spontaneously gathered outside the Armenian National Assembly building. However, the wave of anger subsided as no party committed itself to leading the people. Once again, the public came to the conclusion that there was in fact no political force that wanted to lead the country destroyed by Pashinyan. Is this actually the case?

Robert Kocharyan: This question was also raised during a closed-door meeting with citizens at the Moscow Cinema. The parents of fallen soldiers held a rally there for two days in a row. It so happened that the rally focused on this platform. Roughly speaking, the rally was led by the parents of killed servicemen. That's how it happened. What do you think, we had to fight for the microphone? No. After all, those gathered were not only supporters of the Hayastan or Pativ Unem blocs. Yes, the crowd was angry. But that's the way it happened. I'd better not go on, because I may say something unnecessary which will become a topic for discussion.