Armenia Update: Ruling Party May Back Pashinyan

The ruling party of the Armenian Parliament, the Republicans, have agreed to back Nikol Pashinyan's candidacy for the post of Prime Minister.

The total standstill in Armenia on April 2 was accompanied by a number of political moves in the country. The head of the parliamentary faction of the Republican party, Vahram Baghdasaryan, today released a statement, which said that the ruling Republican party will approve the nomination of a candidate as a PM who will be presented by three out of four factions of the parliament during the parliamentary vote on May 8. The representatives of the same party during the vote on the May 1 rejected Pashinyan's nomination, which was supported by three out of four parliamentary factions.

The leader of Tsarukian Alliance, the second biggest faction of the Armenian Parliament, billionaire Gagik Tsarukian, during a meeting with Pashinyan today, reaffirmed his position to support his nomination, as did the representative of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, former coalition allies of Serzh Sargsyan.

The first President of Armenia, Levon Ter-Petrosian, the leader of the Armenian National Congress party, which was the main opposition party of Armenia 2008-2017 and former mentor and political boss of Pashinyan, in his article in iLur.am news portal called for actors to keep to the constitutional legitimacy of the process. "The legitimacy of the new authorities of Armenia is very important not only for the internal but also for the international affairs of the country," he said.

Meanwhile, the signals coming from the Republican party that they will support Pashinyan's nomination as the new PM of Armenia was enough for Pashinyan to call his supporters to stop the actions of peaceful disobedience in the country from tomorrow. He called on his supporters to follow his facebook page for additional information, and to gather some 500,000 people during the next demonstration on May 8 in Republic Square, Yerevan.

Pashinyan's statement in the Republic Square was greeted as a final capitulation of the ruling Republican party, which has ruled the country since 1998, many times being blamed for falsification of the elections and whose government opened fire on peaceful demonstrators who were challenging the victory of their presidential candidate Serzh Sargsyan,  killing at least 10 and wounding hundreds more on 1 March, 2008.

By Karen Tovmasyan in Yerevan

Image: Nikol Pashinyan. Source: m.mamul.am