Opposition leader seeks Moscow's help against Sargsyan

/By AzerNews/

By Mushvig Mehdiyev

Armenian opposition leader's unexpected two-day visit to Moscow has sparked serious speculations in Yerevan as if it was a part of his fresh anti-government plot.

Prosperous Armenia Party leader GagikTsarukyan has met with the political leaders in the Russian capital following his very recent address calling for an early presidential and parliamentary elections in Armenia

PAP, which calls itself the alternative party, is viewed as the powerbase of the opposition troika of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation and Heritage parties along with PAP.

The result of Tsarukyan's major meeting in Yerevan last week formed a unanimous opinion among the opposition supporters to stand against President Serzh Sargsyan’s initiative of constitutional changes. It dismissed the intended changes as unacceptable and threatened a 24-hour nationwide rally to demand for a power change, if the government avoids to listen to the social and political public opinion in the country.

Stepan Safaryan, a political analyst, Founder and President of the Armenian Institute of International and Security Affairs, thinks that the very question of constitutional reforms urged Tsarukyan to fly to Russia.

"In autumn last year, Tsarukyan probably blocked the protest movement, because he considered a delay of adopting constitutional reforms as a victory of the troika," he said.

"PAP takes several steps to achieve its goal. The first is convening a meeting as an act of unifying the opposition, the second are the calls about early elections, and the third is Tsarukyan's visit to Russia and his meetings with political figures there,” Safaryan noted.

Hraparak, a local newspaper, reported that Tsarukyan met with Armenia's former President Robert Kocharyan on the first day of his visit. He even stayed at the hotel which is reportedly Kocharyan's favorite one in Moscow.

"Tsarukyan told Kocharyan that Sargsyan will realize the constitutional reforms in Armenia," said the newspaper.

Kocharyan became famous recently for his regular criticism of the incumbent authorities in Armenia. His periodical interviews to slam Sargsyan-led regime are interpreted by local observers as overt signs of his imminent rise to power in Armenia.

Many experts even believe that Kocharyan is plotting a re-rise to power in his homeland through Tsarukyan, using the latter's strong influence in the country.