Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan will hardly resign of his own accord amid the anti-government demonstrations in Yerevan, Andrey Areshev told Lenta.ru.
“Everything depends on the determination of the protesters and how organized they are, how ready they are to pursue the established goals,” the expert noted. In his opinion, the situation is quite serious, but the resources of the law enforcement agencies and the external support that Pashinyan has cannot be underestimated. According to Areshev, the important thing here is whether the emerging protest movement will be able to offer any constructive alternative to the course of meeting all the demands of Azerbaijan and Turkey, which Pashinyan and his administration have adopted and are now pursuing.
Arman Vardanyan, the leader of the Unity movement, told the EADaily correspondent that the ultimate goal of the protest movement is Pashinyan’s resignation, after which people will form a new patriotic and professional government through snap elections.
“I am more than sure that Archbishop Bagrat has become invulnerable. Many unsuccessful attempts to discredit him have led to his gaining immunity and even passing it on to the entire popular movement. And when the authorities put forward their absurd theories about an “intelligence service”, a question arises: Guys, whose agents are you and which country do you serve? This is the first thing, and secondly, if the authorities have taken all of this so seriously, let them come and have an open dialogue with people,” Vardanyan noted, adding that if Pashinyan and his team had at least a bit of intelligence, morality and patriotism, they should have voluntarily given up power and resigned. According to him, on average, 70–80% of the people share the ideas and goals of the movement.
