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MP Tigran Abrahamyan of Armenia’s opposition Pativ Unem bloc has blamed Artsakh President Arayik Harutyunyan for the political turmoil in the country following Ruben Vardanyan’s sacking as state minister.

Announcing Vardanyan’s dismissal at a televised cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Harutyunyan said that they had “strategic” differences in their approaches to internal and external issues.

The current chief prosecutor of Artsakh, Gurgen Nersisyan, has been offered the role of state minister in Vardanyan’s place.

“It’s hard to say what principles and approaches the new state minister will follow and what his joint work with the president will be like,” the deputy wrote on Facebook on Saturday.

“Arayik Harutyunyan had been introducing Vardanyan to various circles for months before his appointment as a man capable of changing the situation and putting his huge ties to the service of Artsakh's interests.

“Everyone knows what happened two months after these statements. Some of Harutyunyan's supporters started talking about Vardanyan posing a problem to the state system, others "found out" that Vardanyan is not Russia’s protege and some went so far that they linked Vardanyan's appointment to the efforts of Armenia’s opposition.

“Incidentally, regardless of the reasons, the only man responsible for the domestic political crisis in Artsakh is Harutyunyan, who appointed and dismissed his official shortly afterwards, creating a deep internal crisis and now he is "heroically" fighting it.

“Given Harutyunyan's erratic and unpredictable political behavior, it is difficult to say what comes after the new state minister’s appointment,” Abrahamyan said.