Snap elections threaten Armenia with chaos - politician

Snap parliamentary elections, if held now, will promote a deeper chaos in Armenia, increasingly undermining our national security which is in a state of collapse as it is, says Ruben Hakobyan, a former member of the National Assembly who currently heads the analytical club Akunq.

In an interview with Tert.am, the politician slammed Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's recent remark on early elections as "treachery", describing the hint, dropped in a recent Facebook post, as a language characterizing a "rascal".

"Snap elections must be out of the question now - in light of the enemy's repeated 'GPS-tracking' of Armenia from the south and north. Snap elections will practically provoke a chaos in Armenia, which is advantageous to two people alone: [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan. Any elections, even those held in stable situations, do see a certain degree competitiveness, with the society being understandably one way or another divided. But can you possibly picture to yourself elections now that the society is experiencing such a great degree of intolerance and aggressiveness? Only a great rascal would think of snap elections at the moment," he said, praising the decision by the National Salvation Movement to achieve the incumbent premier's resignation in the first place (to pave the way for swift transitions after creating 'stability guarantees' within a year).

Asked to comment on Pashinyan's call for inviting the parliamentary and extra-parliamentary parties to a political debate, Hakobyan said he doesn't expect any "respectable" political force to accept the proposal. "It is very pusillanimous of Pashinyan to set such a goal, which is not in the least to Armenia's advantage; that's understandable to all. If any political force goes to a political consultation with Pashinyan, it must, by all means, call for his resignation. Ans it must be aired live. And it is necessary to explain to him that 'you keep on decapitating Armenia'."

Addressing Pashinyan's insistence on the "lack of a popular demand", Hakobyan agreed that the Armenian political culture had never before seen the kind of "solidarity". "A small portion of the people are practically devoid of the ability to understand the lie and obsequiousness. The demonstrations are not so crowded for understandable reasons, whereas it seemed to him that those who do not go to those demonstrations do really support him. The exceptional tool which he used  over the entire period - and is still holding on to - is the aggressive populism which is being used also today when he speaks about the people," Hakobyan added.